Analysis of a Reservation-Based Random Access Network: Throughput Region and Power Consumption

In this paper, we analytically study a random access network that uses the request-to-send and clear-to-send (RTS/CTS) handshake for reservation of transmission time. In the network, nodes initiate data transmission to a common base station (BS) by sending an RTS packet according to a transmission probability. The RTS packet of a node specifies the length of the node's requested data transmission interval, and will be successfully received by the BS if its signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) is higher than the capture ratio. The BS will then reply with a CTS packet to grant this node the requested data transmission interval and inform the other nodes not to interrupt. The transmission probabilities of RTS packets of all nodes will determine the average throughput and power consumption of each node. The set of all possible throughputs that can be achieved by the network is called the throughput region. We characterize the throughput region and provide an upper bound on the total transmission power consumption over the throughput region at the optimal operating point. Specifically, the upper bound corresponds to one of three points in the throughput region depending on the fraction of time occupied by the RTS packets.