Analysis of a Two-Hop Centralized Packet Radio Network--Part I: Slotted ALOHA

The design of packet radio systems involves a large number of design variables that interact in a very complex fashion. As this design problem in its general form is quite complex, a viable approach is to analyze some simple but typical configurations in an attempt to understand the behavior of these systems. In this paper, a two-hop centralized configuration is considered in which traffic originates at terminals, is destined to a central station, and requires for its transport the relaying of packets by store-and-forward repeaters. The through-put-delay performance is derived, and its dependence on such key system variables as the network topology, the transmission protocol, and the repeaters´ storage capacities, is given. In this part, devices are assumed to be utilizing the slotted ALOHA access mode. Carrier sense multiple access is treated in Part II of this series [1].