Stable Throughput and Delay Analysis of a Random Access Network With Queue-Aware Transmission

In this paper, we consider a two-user and a three-user slotted ALOHA network with multi-packet reception (MPR) capabilities and a queue-aware transmission control. In this setting, the nodes can adapt their transmission probabilities and their transmission parameters based on the status of the other nodes. Each user has external bursty arrivals that are stored in their infinite capacity queues. We focus on the fundamental problem of characterizing the stable throughput region, as well as of investigating the queueing delay. For the two- and the three-user cases, we obtain the exact stability region, whereas in the former case, we also provide the conditions under which the stability region is a convex set. We perform a detailed mathematical analysis to study the queueing delay in the two-user case by formulating two boundary value problems, the solution of which provides the generating function of the joint stationary probability distribution of the queue size at user nodes. Furthermore, for the two-user symmetric case with MPR, we obtain a lower and an upper bound for the average delay without the need of solving a boundary value problem. In addition, we provide a closed form expression for the gap between the lower and the upper bound. The bounds as it is seen in the numerical results appear to be tight. Explicit expressions for the average delay are obtained for the symmetrical model with capture effect. We also provide a closed form expression for the optimal transmission probability that minimizes the average delay in the symmetric capture case. Finally, we evaluate numerically the presented theoretical results.