Voice/data channel access integration in TDMA digital cellular networks

The integration of digital data capabilities in the soon to be widely deployed digital cellular networks, which were primarily designed for voice communications, offers a low-cost way to capture the large and ever growing market for mobile data services. The authors propose and evaluate a multiaccess protocol for integrating data traffic in the E(nhanced)-TDMA voice system with digital speech interpolation, which is an enhancement of the emerging North American digital cellular standard. The proposed, protocol combines random access with slot reservation mechanisms to statistically multiplex data packets with speech spurt packets over the shared terminal-to-base air channel. The integrated protocol requires no modification in the voice access protocol used in the E-TDMA system, and can attain performance close to that of an ideal voice/data multiplexer. Furthermore, the protocol may enable multislot assignment per TDMA frame to match the throughput needs of individual data terminals, and can accommodate application-dependent data transmission priorities