Highly scalable fair contention resolution scheme based on idle time

We propose a new contention resolution scheme designed for large scale autonomous wireless systems and fully distributed D2D (device-to-device) communications networks. The proposed contention resolution scheme is designed for scalability, efficiency, and fairness. Unlike traditional contention resolution schemes, the proposed contention resolution scheme uses idle time of channel as a measure of the channel condition. Idle time of channel is not only a much more reliable and versatile measure of channel condition than the traditional way of collision detection using ACK, it also makes it possible to use the proposed contention resolution scheme in situations where ACK is not expected such as with broadcast and multicast messages or in fully distributed synchronization procedures. The simulation study confirms that the proposed scheme exhibits high degree of scalability, efficiency, and fairness.