Channel quality dynamics for wireless packet data with dynamic channel assignment

We investigate how the interference/signal quality varies over time and the effect of channel setup delay on the signal quality for wireless packet data traffic with dynamic channel assignment (DCA). It is found that the SIR/interference conditions under packet data traffic becomes uncorrelated much more rapidly than that under conventional circuit-switched traffic. Therefore, a channel setup delay, which is negligible in circuit-switched traffic, can significantly degrade the signal quality for packet data traffic. The channel setup delay also raises additional blocking problems in packet data traffic which do not exist in circuit-switched traffic. These results will provide guidelines for future design of DCA and MAC (medium access control) protocols for wireless packet data services.