Throughput estimation of ARQ protocols for a Rayleigh fading channel using fade- and interfade-duration statistics

Error detection combined with automatic repeat request retransmission is used to provide reliable digital data transmission over a communication channel. The throughput for a system using go-back-N or selective-repeat protocols with Rayleigh fading in both directions of transmission is approximated by using fade- and interfade-duration statistics of a multipath channel. Results indicate that for a slow-fading channel (e.g. fading rate=1.34 Hz), the throughput of go-back-N is only slightly inferior to that of selective-repeat, mainly due to the burstiness of the channel bit errors. >