Multiple access protocol for an underground mobile communication system

This paper studies the multiple access technique adopted in the MINECOM system, a versatile micro-cellular mobile communications network specifically designed for underground mining aimed at providing reliable communications for multiple channels of two-way voice, monitoring data, control signals, and eventually compressed digital video. The MINECOM multiple access protocol is a variant of a reservation MAC protocol with a slotted ALOHA packet reservation channel utilizing the TDD technique, or a TDD R-ALOHA. The performance of the MINECOM protocol is analyzed in terms of throughput and average message delay by the EPA (equilibrium point analysis) method.