Multiple access for third-generation personal communication systems

The role of the multiple access protocol in future personal communication systems is to provide efficient and timely access to multirate broadband applications involving integrated voice, video and data services. In addition, the protocol is required to operate with the difficult constraints posed by moving users, dynamic traffic load variations and highly sensitive wireless links. Recognizing this need a robust multiple access scheme called "enhanced reserved polling" is introduced. This practical scheme is designed to execute many mobility-related functions including radio resource assignment, connection control and mobility management. It achieves stable throughput without the use of collision feedback information and accommodates a diverse mixture of delay classes and message priorities associated with multimedia traffic. Unlike most multiple access strategies proposed for cellular networks, enhanced reserved polling allows adjacent cells surrounding any congested cell to carry the extra traffic load autonomously. To gain a quantitative insight into its performance, the protocol is analyzed and simulated in detail. The unique ability of the protocol to improve the bandwidth sharing among different cells in the network is also shown.