Wireless networks with retransmission diversity access mechanisms: Stable throughput and delay properties

Building on the concept of retransmission diversity, a class of collision resolution protocols [(B)NDMA] has been introduced recently for wireless packet multiple access. These protocols provide the means for improved performance compared with random access and splitting-based collision resolution protocols at a moderate receiver complexity cost. However, stability of these protocols has not been established, and the available steady-state analysis is restricted to symmetric (common-rate) systems. In this paper, the stability region of (B)NDMA is formally analyzed. The tools used in the analysis range from a preliminary dominant system approach to the Foster-Lyapunov recurrence criterion and the (σ, ρ) deterministic fluid arrivals approach. It is rigorously established that maximum stable throughput is close to 1. This is followed by a simpler and more general steady-state analysis, bypassing the earlier generating function approach, using instead only balance equations. This approach allows dealing with asymmetry (multirate systems), yielding expressions for throughput and delay per queue. Finally, we generalize BNDMA and the associated analysis to multicode systems.