A MAC Protocol for Half-Duplex Multi-Packet Detection in SC-FDE Systems

This paper deals with multi-packet detection for SC modulations (Single-Carrier) with FDE (Frequency-Domain Equalization). We consider iterative frequency- domain receivers that jointly perform the equalization, multi-packet separation and channel decoding operations. Our receivers allow a high throughput provided that the number of mobile terminals that is trying to access a given slot is equal to or below the multi-packet detection capacity Q_max. We propose a new MAC protocol that allows a total number of mobile terminals J above Q_max by controlling the number of mobile terminals contending to transmit. The paper evaluates the uplink saturated system throughput and proposes an optimal configuration for the packet transmission probability associated to each mobile terminal. Our analytical results are validated using physical and MAC layer simulations.