Performance evaluation of the R-BTMA protocol in a distributed mobile radio network context

A reservation multiple-access protocol for mobile communication in a decentralized environment is proposed and investigated both analytically and by simulation. The reservation-busy-tone multiple access (R-BTMA) is a fully distributed and reservation-based protocol. It is a medium access control (MAC) protocol designed for short-range communications between vehicles in a decentralized context (i.e., without a base station). The specificity of this protocol relies on the utilization of two different characteristic channels. Information is transmitted on the data channel (DC), whereas the busy-tone channel (BTC) is used for signalling traffic. The range of the BTC is typically longer than the DC one. The throughput and access delay performance are studied in the particular context of two cells sharing a common BTC. The traffic between the vehicles is supposed to be regular and is parameter sharing. The comparison of the model analysis results to those obtained by the simulative approach shows a satisfactory matching. >