Voice and data integration in the air-interface of a microcellular mobile communication system

A multiple-access protocol and a call acceptance algorithm for voice and data integration in a microcellular mobile communication system are presented. The protocol supports circuit-mode voice, burst-mode voice, and data. A hybrid multiplexing scheme with no boundaries performs statistical multiplexing, the call-level (for circuit-mode voice) and the talkspurt/message-level (for burst-mode voice and data). This scheme achieves high utilization of the available bandwidth compared to pure circuit switching, but with a lower quality in the latter two classes, due to delay during channel access on each talkspurt/message. A two-party transaction model for each class is implemented, giving a realistic load on uplink and downlink. A unified access procedure is presented, and the structure of the required control bursts is described. Performance is analyzed using simulation, and the optimum data-segment size is obtained. The maximum acceptable load is determined for various traffic mixes. A call acceptance algorithm is implemented, and typical simulation results for delay and call blocking are given