Enhanced channel access protocol for DECT systems with multimedia traffic

According to the idea of an enhanced wireless access interface to the fixed network in a prospective UMTS scenario, DECT is required to efficiently support multimedia traffic while guaranteeing the effective sharing and exploitation of the limited radio resources. To this aim, a modified channel access algorithm, based on slot-segmentation during the channel contention phase, is designed and the effects of its introduction in traditional DECT are studied. The output of a performance evaluation activity, both in single and multi-cell environments with homogeneous and multimedia traffic, is reported. Achieved improvements are manifest in terms of both throughput and guaranteed QoS to each type of traffic. Furthermore, the modified DECT interface shows a high flexibility in handling different traffic with their specific requirements.