Channel assignment under a conflict-free allocation policy

A random, conflict-free slot assignment policy is adopted for the allocation of a common channel between two (non-communicating) stations. Although this policy is inferior to the optimal periodic, fixed slot assignment policy, it is shown than it achieves the performance of that optimal policy as the variance of the packet arrival process increases. The main advantage of the random, conflict-free slot assignment policy is that it is simple and always feasible unlike the optimal, periodic, fixed slot assignment policy. Furthermore, the proposed policy is easily implemented in a dynamically changing environment; the optimal such policy is derived and a simple strategy based on a threshold test is developed for the identification of the optimal such policy, when estimates of the traffic parameters are available. No such strategy is known for the adaptation of the parameters of the optimal periodic, fixed slot assignment policy. The developed analysis approach can be applied, to a great extent, to a system with more than two stations