Multi-Group Priority Queueing MAC Protocol for Multipacket Reception Channel

Relying on a simple flag-assisted mechanism, a multi- group priority queueing (MGPQ) medium access control (MAC) protocol is proposed for the multipacket reception (MPR) channel. The proposed MGPQ scheme is capable of overcoming two major performance bottlenecks inherent in the existing MPR MAC protocols. First, the proposed solution can automatically produce the list of active users by observing the network traffic conditions, removes the need of active user estimation algorithm, and thus can largely reduce the algorithm complexity. Second, the packet blocking constraint imposed on the active users for keeping compliant with prediction is relaxed. As a result, the proposed MGPQ is not only applicable to both homogeneous and heterogeneous cases, but also outperforms the existing MPR MAC protocols. Simulation results show that the network throughput can be improved by 40% maximum and 14% average as compared with the well known dynamic queue (DQ) MAC protocol.