1983 Reports

Distributed Multiple Access Protocols and Real-Time Communication

Kurose, James F.; Yemini, Yechiam; Schwartz, Mischa

In the past 10 years the field of distributed multiple access communication has developed into a major area of both practical and theoretical interest within the field of computer communications. The multiple access problem arises from the necessity of sharing a single communication channel among a community of distributed users. The distributed algorithm used by the stations to share the channel is known as the multiple access protocol. This paper examines the multiple access problem and various approaches towards its resolution. This survey first defines the multiple access problem and then presents the underlying issues and difficulties in multiple access communication. A taxonomy for multiple access protocols is then developed in order to characterize common approaches and to provide a framework in which these protocols can be compared and contrasted. Different proposed protocols are then described and discussed and aspects of their performance are examined The use of multiple access protocols for "real-time" or "time-constrained" communication applications, such as voice transmission, is examined next. Issues in real-time communication are identified and recent work in the design of real-time multiple access protocols is surveyed.