Stability evaluation and design of the PRMA joint voice data system

Packet reservation multiple access (PRMA) provides spatially dispersed voice and data terminals wireless access to a base station over a common short-range radio channel. The author presents an equilibrium point analysis of the joint voice data system. The analysis leads to two coupled nonlinear equations. By a judicious change of variables, the author calculates the equilibrium of the joint system by finding the roots of a univariate equation. The author provides expressions for voice packet dropping probability, the distribution of data packet delays and the system throughput, at equilibrium. For the joint voice data system the design problem is two dimensional. Elementary catastrophe theory leads to a bifurcation of the design space into useful and congested regions. The useful design space is further restricted by target values of the performance criteria. The study of a nominal system verifies the design methodology. Moreover, it shows that PRMA gracefully accepts low bit rate data terminals with moderate data packet delays (few hundred milliseconds), while simultaneously satisfying a 1% speech packet dropping criterion