A rock-paper-scissors evolutionary algorithm for the TDMA broadcast scheduling problem

In wireless ad-hoc networks, the broadcast scheduling problem (BSP) is commonly viewed as a well-known NP-complete combinatorial optimization problem. The purpose of the BSP is to achieve a transmission schedule with collision-free time slots in a time division multiple access ad-hoc network. The transmission schedule is optimized by minimizing the frame length of the node transmissions and maximizing the utilization of the shared channel. In this work, we propose a new evolutionary algorithm to solve the BSP by adopting the rock-paper-scissors dynamics found in natural systems. We use three types of species with strategies of different levels of intensification and diversification to simulate the rock-paper-scissors dynamics. Based on this evolutionary game, in which the success of one species relies on the behavior of others, the dynamic coexistence of three species can be achieved to control the balance between intensification and diversification. The experimental results demonstrate that our algorithm is efficient and effective at solving large instances of the BSP.