Delay Analysis of a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) Channel

The delay performance of a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) channel for transmitting data messages is considered. The channel is assumed to be fixed assigned to a station with unlimited buffer capacity and Poisson message arrivals. Each message gives rise to one or more packets for transmission into fixed-length time slots. The steady-state probability generating function of the queue size is derived. A formula for the expected message delay is given. The analysis is then generalized to a nonpreemptive priority queue discipline; expected message delay formulas are given for the priority classes.