A New Medium Access Control Protocol for Integrated Traffic Personal Communication Networks

Abstract

The future success of the personal communications service depends on its ability to accommodate efficiently integrated traffic and service a variety of applications and communication sources with different quality of service requirements. For doing so, efficient algorithms are needed to support integrated services in the personal and mobile communications environment. In the present work, we propose a Spread Slotted Random Access protocol with a multi-priority service mechanism incorporated in its structure. The priority mechanism is implemented and controlled explicitly by the users and without any involvement from the network. This makes the allocation of priority transparent to the network infrastructure and adds to the simplicity and practical value of the proposed scheme. We examine the proposed protocol under reservation and non-reservation policies and evaluate it for integrated and data traffic. Our results show that the protocol is able to achieve high levels of utilization and is capable to accommodate relatively large volumes of integrated traffic.

This research was supported by a Start-up Research Grant from Lakehead University, by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) under Research Grant (Individual) OGP0184108 and the Telecommunications Research Institute of Ontario (TRIO).