A multiple access scheme for radio access loop carrying multiple‐service traffic—virtual circuit multiple access (VCMA)

The integrated services digital network (ISDN), which is under construction at present, will enlarge the range of communication service by developing radio access systems, with the digital mobile communication systems as the core. The purpose of such a radio access system is to realize the communication capability, which is as flexible as that of the fixed system, while utilizing the features of the radio system. The following problems arise in the traditional access schemes, however, when multiple types of calls with various information characteristics and rates are to be handled. The immediate (circuit switching) system cannot contain efficiently the multiple type of traffic, while the waiting (packet switching) system may produce a delay with a long variation. This paper proposes a new scheme for radio channel access, aiming at a positive integration of the multiple type of traffic. In this scheme, the blank of information is compressed to construct a block (cell) with a constant length, and the physical channel is controlled to be assigned to each cell. The blank is inserted on the receiving side to ensure the time-transparency. Then, the flexibility to various types of immediate and waiting calls, as well as the efficient operation of the channels, are realized. This paper describes also the concept of the scheme and fundamental composition. The channel capacity and the channel occupancy are evaluated by a computer simulation, and it is shown that the proposed scheme has the desirable property that the statistical multiplexing effect is utilized.