Erasure, capture, and noise errors in controlled multiple-access networks

An ALOHA-type communication system with many nodes accessing a common receiver through a time-slotted shared radio channel is considered. Due to topological and environmental conditions, the receiver is prone to fail to detect some or all of the packets transmitted in a slot; this phenomenon is called erasure. The receiver may also capture, that is, detect a single transmission out of many. In addition, noise errors may cause the receiver to detect nonexistent collisions. Using the feedback information regarding the detection of zero or one packet or a collision at the receiver, the nodes determine their transmission policy. A class of decentralized multiaccess algorithms that maintain system stability under the above phenomenon is presented, and the maximal throughput they can support is determined. The maximal throughput of these algorithms is insensitive to some noise errors and erasures