43
2

Channel Cycle Time: A New Measure of Short-term Fairness

Abstract

This paper puts forth a new metric, dubbed channel cycle time, to measure the short-term fairness of communication networks. Channel cycle time characterizes the average duration between two successful transmissions of a user, during which all other users have successfully accessed the channel at least once. Compared with existing short-term fairness measures, channel cycle time provides a comprehensive picture of the transient behavior of communication networks, and is a single real value that is easy to compute. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our new approach, we analytically characterize the channel cycle time of slotted Aloha and CSMA/CA. It is shown that CSMA/CA is a short-term fairer protocol than slotted Aloha. Channel cycle time can serve as a promising design principle for future communication networks, placing greater emphasis on optimizing short-term behaviors like fairness, delay, and jitter.

View on arXiv
Comments on this paper

We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our website, to show you personalized content and targeted ads, to analyze our website traffic, and to understand where our visitors are coming from. See our policy.