APPROXIMATE ANALYSIS OF BUFFERED MULTIPLE-ACCESS PROTOCOLS

A method for the approximate performance analysis of random multiple-a ccess protocols, such as, ALOHA, URN, random TDMA, is presented. This method is an extension of a previously proposed 2-Markov chain method. It is applicable to systems consisting of a finite number of identica l users, each having a buffer capacity of L packets, where L > 2. For L = 2 the proposed method is exact!. The performance measures of the system under analysis are computed following the solution of a system of nonlinear equations. the size of which is independent of the buffer size L. The numerical results derived are in very good agreement with simulation.