A time-scale separation technique for the analysis of random access systems with incremental redundancy

A time-scale separation technique is developed for the analysis of multi-access packet data systems with a varying number of users. User arrival and departure processes are assumed to occur on a time-scale that is slow compared with the time-scale over which a packet is served. Time-scale separation is shown to considerably simplify system analysis by separating the queueing theoretic and the physical layer aspects of the multi-access system.