Resource allocation strategies for message traffic in wireless multimedia communications

In the development of the MAC (media access control) layer protocol in wire less multimedia communication, it will be necessary to consider compatibili ty with future cable networks which will provide guaranteed service and bes t-effort service. This paper focuses on a resource allocation procedure to contain the best-effort class in the ALOHA reservation-type MAC protocol, a nd presents two allocation algorithms, namely, MAF (monopolistic allocation to the first-in terminal) and ES (equal sharing). As to the best-effort cl ass, an algorithm is desired that provides high throughput and fairness, as far as possible, although it is not necessary to guarantee QoS. From those points of view, the two algorithms are compared in terms of the average th roughput, the throughput variance, and so forth. The message (data) is mode led based on electronic mail on the Internet and Web pages. It is found tha t the ES algorithm is suited to the best-effort class, because it can reali ze high average throughput and low throughput variation, although the compu tational complexity is high. It is also found that the difference between t he two algorithms is enhanced in a burst error environment at the packet le vel, becoming more marked in high-speed wireless transmission. (C) 1999 Scr ipta Technica, Electron Comm Jpn Pt 1, 83(4): 21-33, 2000.