A protocol for combining voice and data traffic on a trunked multichannel PMR system

Discusses the design of a protocol in the family of idle-casting multiple access protocols for use in a multichannel private mobile radio environment. Network traffic is defined in terms of call and packet type traffic. The protocol uses packet reservation to integrate both call and packet traffic onto multiple narrowband channels. No special hardware is required and packet data can still be transmitted when all channels are occupied by call traffic. A description of the protocol is given and some analytic and simulation results are presented for packet traffic message performance