Control procedures for slotted Aloha systems that achieve stability
L. Clare · ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review · 1986
A class of slotted ALOHA dynamic control strategies is considered. These strategies are simple to implement and can yield lossless and stable operation for arbitrarily large user populations with aggregate arrival rates below e -1 packets/slot. An ergodicity analysis is given that provides conditions on the system parameters, such that any specified set of control parameters that satisfies the given conditions is guaranteed to yield stable performance. The system state is modelled as a two-dimensional Markov chain that incorporates the backlog (the number of packets awaiting retransmission) and the estimate of the backlog. The geometrical concepts are illustrated by figures corresponding to an example case. Simulation results are presented that compare alternative control schemes.