Multiple-access protocols: fairness in heterogeneous systems

We propose a distributed reservation protocol for high-speed, star-based, local-communication systems with heterogeneous users. The users have different delay, throughput, and priority requirements, and each user has knowledge of only its own traffic mix. At light loads, the usual delay overhead of reservation schemes can be eliminated. Also, the probability of correct reservation reception is improved: it is only necessary to detect the presence or absence of a signal since reservation signals do not carry address information or the desired amount of channel time. Users know the value of a global reservation counter, which specifies the amount of transmission time acquired by a reservation. The protocol can support both circuit- and packet-switched traffic (e.g., integrated voice and data)