BRAM: The Broadcast Recognizing Access Method

In this paper, we first present the broadcast recognizing access method (BRAM), an access protocol suitable for regulating internode communication in either a radio or (coaxial or fiber) cable based communication system. The method avoids collisions, imposes negligible computational requirements on the nodes attempting to transmit, and is fair in the sense that no node will be indefinitely prevented from transmitting. Next we introduce parametric BRAM which attempts to balance the length of inserted channel idle periods, resulting from scheduling effects, against the probability of allowed message collisions. We show that parametric BRAM can be used to realize a method which balances inserted channel idle time against the probability of message collision to yield enhanced performance. For high message loads, parametric BRAM converges to BRAM, while for low and medium loadings it yields throughputs in excess of BRAM, and other methods. Both BRAM and parametric BRAM are discussed under the assumption of homogeneous message arrival rates at the nodes. We conclude by showing how the parametric BRAM can be applied when the nodes operate with heterogeneous or mixed message arrival rates.