A delay-throughput performance improvement to the p/sub i/-persistent protocol

The p/sub i/-persistent medium access protocol is an attractive solution for high-speed fiber-optic unidirectional bits networks. Sarkar (1996) investigated the delay versus throughput characteristics and fairness performance of the p/sub i/-persistent protocol, inducting the 1-persistent protocol. The main advantage of 1-persistent protocol over the p/sub i/-persistent protocol is the reduced mean packet delay (network-wide and also for individual stations), but the potential drawback of this protocol is the lack of fairness. In contrast, the p/sub i/-persistent protocol can provide good fairness in the sense that mean delays become almost station position independent, but the main drawback of this protocol is the inevitable increase in packet delay. We propose a new scheme, called p/sub i/-persistent/HH (p/sub i/-persistent protocol with hitch-hiking mechanism for slot pre-use) that can offer the combining advantages of 1-persistent and p/sub i/-persistent protocols (i.e. low mean delay and fairness). The low mean delay as well as fairness is achieved by introducing a special mechanism of slot pre-use, called hitch-hiking (HH). In this paper the p/sub i/-persistent/HH scheme is described and simulation results are presented to verify the projected performance.