Multiple-access algorithms for a system with mixed traffic: high and low priority

The author considers a system where a single channel is shared by both high- and low-priority data. He assumes packet transmissions from both data categories and slotted channel. In addition, he assumes binary (collision versus noncollision) feedback per slot, and limited feedback sensing capabilities for all users in the system. He assumes that the high-priority data are generated by a well-defined finite-number user population, while he adopts the limit Poisson user model (infinitely many independent Bernoulli users) for the low-priority traffic. For this system, he proposes and analyzes a transmission algorithm which is a mixture of a deterministic tree search for the high-priority users, and a random-access algorithm for the low-priority traffic. The algorithm is stable for both traffic classes, it guarantees a strict upper bound on the delays of the high-priority packets, and induces good throughput-delay characteristics for the low-priority data