FlashLinQ: A synchronous distributed scheduler for peer-to-peer ad hoc networks

This paper proposes FlashLinQ - a synchronous peer-to-peer wireless PHY/MAC network architecture for distributed channel allocation. By leveraging the fine-grained parallel channel access of OFDM, FlashLinQ develops an analog energy-level based signaling scheme that enables SIR (Signal to Interference Ratio) based distributed scheduling. This new signaling mechanism and the corresponding allocation algorithms permit efficient channel-aware spatial resource allocation, leading to significant gains over a CSMA/CA system with RTS/CTS. FlashLinQ is a complete system architecture including (i) timing and frequency synchronization derived from cellular spectrum, (ii) peer discovery, (iii) link management, and (iv) channel-aware distributed power, data-rate and link scheduling. We implement FlashLinQ over licensed spectrum on a DSP/FPGA platform. In this paper, we present performance results for FlashLinQ using both implementation and simulations.