Résumé: We introduce a stable multiple access protocol for broadcast channels shared by bursty stations, which we call CARMA-NTQ (for collision avoidance and resolution multiple access with non-persistence and transmission queues). Like previous efficient MAC protocols based on tree-splitting algorithms (e.g., DQRAP), CARMA-NTQ maintains a distributed queue for the transmission of data packets and a stack for the transmission of control packets used in collision resolution. However, CARMA-NTQ does not require the mini-slots commonly used in protocols based on collision resolution. CARMA-NTQ dynamically divides the channel into cycles of variable length; each cycle consists of a contention period and a queue-transmission period. The queue-transmission period is a variable-length train of packets, which are transmitted by stations that have been added to the distributed transmission queue by successfully completing a collision-resolution round in a previous contention period. During the contention period, stations with packets to send compete for the right to be added to the data-transmission queue using a deterministic first-success tree-splitting algorithm, so that a new station is added to the transmission queue. A lower bound is derived for the average throughput achieved with CARMA-NTQ as a function of the size of the transmission queue and the number of queue-addition requests that need to be resolved. This bound is based on the upper bound on the average number of collision resolution steps needed to resolve a given number of queue-add requests.

Langue: Anglais