Status sense multiple access (S2MA) communication

A contention-based multiaccess protocol, the status sense multiple access (S²MA) protocol which integrates heterogeneous classes of customers over a common broadcast channel, is described. The performance of the protocol with two classes of customers, such as voice and data, is analyzed. Unlike the fixed-boundary approach of integrating two classes of users, no slot is wasted with S²MA, except for possible collisions, as long as there is a demand for the slot from either of the two classes. Therefore, the channel utilization efficiency can be very high. The protocol is shown to be stable in the sense that the access delay of the data packets is bounded due to the controlled access mechanism of the backlogged data users