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Design and analysis of multi-channel protocols in local area networks

University of British Columbia

Current implementations of local area networks utilize a single channel for packet transmission. The need for multi-channel networks arises whenever (a) the population of users is large, and the extra hardware cost incurred by increasing the data rates in response to higher user demands, is not justified, (b) the bandwidth is available only in segments (such as in CATV systems), or (c) the use of high data rates causes an unacceptably high bit-error probability. We propose two different multi-channel access control protocols. The first, SRMA/m, utilizes a distributed scheme for request, and a central scheme for message packet scheduling. The second protocol, MCMA/m, is totally distributed, avoiding much of the hardware complexity of SRMA/m. The performance of the protocols is studied using a combination of analytical and simulation methods. The performance criteria are efficient bandwidth utilization and small average delays. The same system parameters are used for both protocols, making a comparative study possible. The delay vs. throughput performances of the two protocols are compared. The comparison indicates that for light to intermediate loads, MCMA/m shows a better performance (i.e. lower delays for the same throughputs). For higher loads, the relative performance depends on m, the number of channels. For small values of m (1£m£4), the overall performance of MCMA/m is superior. However as m increases, SRMA/m shows a better performance in the form of lower delays and fixed capacity (versus decreasing capacity of MCMA/m). In conclusion, the choice between SRMA/m and MCMA/m is based on a direct cost/performance tradeoff. For most ranges of parameters, SRMA/m achieves a superior performance at the expense of higher hardware complexity and cost.

Text

2010-04-13

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/23415

Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of British Columbia

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