Analysis of frame-based reservation random access protocols for microcellular radio networks

Reservation random access (RRA) protocols have been proposed for handling speech and data traffic on packet wireless networks. An interesting property of some RRA protocols is the capability of decoupling the speech access procedure from the data access procedure, so that speech access performances do not depend on actual data load. Frame-based protocols allow one to get the decoupling property easily. In this paper, we present a Markov model for analyzing the performances of frame-based RRA protocols that operate in a microcellular environment with channel errors. In the paper, this model is used for evaluating the performances of centralized RRA protocols, which use retransmissions for handling channel errors. Both in-slot access schemes, in which all the slots can be used for talkspurt setup and for user information transmission, and out-slot access schemes, with a separate reservation channel, are examined. Moreover, we present and analyze a new, stable, centralized RRA protocol, namely centralized-collision resolution access (C-CRA), which is based on collision resolution techniques.