A mixed channel access and hybrid ARQ method for wireless communication networks

Many MAC (medium access control) protocols have been proposed for wireless communication networks thus far. However, most of them are based on the assumption of error-free channel(s) while others assume error channels but do not take into account the error control method. On the other hand, discussions on ARQ (auto repeat request) schemes are usually limited on the level of point-to-point communications. In this paper, we apply a hybrid ARQ (HARQ) scheme, which is a combination of the idea of type-II HARQ and the interleaving technique, to R-ISMA (reserved idle signal multiple access) protocol. Since R-ISMA is flexible in polling terminals and the HARQ scheme is designed for anti burst errors, the mixed method is an expectable one in fading channels. The dynamic system performance is evaluated by using TFA (transient fluid approximation) analysis based on the Fritchman´s simple partitioned Markov chain model, which is used to describe the burst error channel