A dynamic adaptive multiple access protocol for wireless integrated communications

A novel multiple access protocol, called DAMMA, is proposed for efficient handling of heterogenous traffic encountered in emerging wireless multimedia communications. To minimise contention collisions, DAMMA adopts random time slot selection in addition to the adaptive procedure for maintaining sufficient time slots available for contention. With DAMMA, time slots are selectively allocated to traffic of different service classes and priority levels to meet the diverse QoS requirements. Computer simulation results indicate that DAMMA can significantly enhance the throughput performance of data traffic. Under a given condition, the DAMMA protocol can achieve a maximum throughput of 91%, which compares well with 70% for the master-slave dynamic rate access (MSDRA) protocol adopted in the General Radio Packet Service (GPRS) system.