Reservation policies for packet voice protocols in cellular environments

Packet switching is currently under investigation for application in mobile radio systems. Packet switching allows one to readily increase spectrum efficiency by transmitting only during source activity periods and exploiting a statistical multiplexing among different users. Moreover, packet switching can be seen as a means to relieve system management by allowing a distributed network control. Some different packet protocols, based on a Reservation ALOHA protocol, have been proposed for use in mobile radio systems, even though their performances have been initially evaluated in interference free environments. Successive analyses addressed the evaluation of impairments due to the interference originated in co-channel cells. The authors capitalise on those achievements and introduce some additional key features to be taken into account while designing a reservation based packet switched system