Fixed- and movable-boundary channel-access schemes for integrated voice/data wireless networks

Addresses the major issues associated with channel access in integrated wireless networks, and proposes and analyzes the “wireless integrated multiple access” (WIMA) protocol. This scheme is based on a mixture of boundary ideas for integration and of previously introduced protocols for wireless access, and is well suited to either satellite or to terrestrial networks. A two-dimensional first-order Markov chain model for this scheme is presented, and techniques that exploit the structural properties of this chain to simplify the evaluation of the equilibrium state, without sacrificing accuracy, are described. Analytical models for the evaluation of data-packet delay for both fixed- and movable-boundary versions of this protocol and for voice-call blocking probability are presented. Performance results illustrate the dependence of performance on system parameters, and demonstrate the improved performance that can be achieved through the use of the movable-boundary version