Basic limits on protocol information in slotted communication networks

We investigate the amount of protocol information required for a communication network to meet an average delay constraint for the delivery of messages that arrive according to a Bernoulli random process. We obtain a lower bound on this overhead as a function of the arrival rate and average delay. Our model is a discretetime analog of the Poisson arrival process considered by Gallager, and we show that in the limit as slot duration goes to zero, Gallagerpsilas bound is recovered.