A wireless multiple access control protocol for voice-data integration

In this paper, a new wireless medium access control protocol, called Mini-Packets Reservation Multiple Access (MPRMA), is proposed for the microcellular wireless environments to support voice and data traffic. Instead of using information packets to contend for reservation, the protocol uses smaller reservation packets for contention. Thus, regular slots can be further divided into smaller slots for sending reservation packets. Furthermore, in order to facilitate subsequent packet transmission, a continuation flag is used in each information packet for requesting further reservation. Comparing to the Packet Reservation Multiple Access (PRMA), it is shown by simulation that MPRMA can support more voice and data users, respectively, in a single traffic type environment. And more importantly, MPRMA is also a better alternative to PRMA for supporting voice-data integration. In order to counter adverse channel conditions, a strategy is also proposed. In addition, MPRMA requires no deadline scheduling at the base stations and minimizes overhead bandwidth on the downlink for sending acknowledgment messages