Performance Analysis of CSMA with Multi-Packet Reception: The Inhomogeneous Case

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the performance of CSMA with multi-packet reception in inhomogeneous networks, deriving throughput and delay formulas for a broad class of MPR models, including SIC, C&F, and SCF, and providing guidelines for QoS and stability.

Contribution

It introduces the first analytical framework for inhomogeneous CSMA with MPR, covering a wide range of MPR techniques and offering insights into their performance and stability.

Findings

Derived accurate throughput and delay expressions for inhomogeneous CSMA.

Showed SCF outperforms other MPR techniques in certain scenarios.

Provided theoretical guidelines for QoS and stability in large systems.

Abstract

The problem of Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) with multi-packet reception (MPR) is studied. Most prior work has focused on the homogeneous case, where all the mobile users are assumed to have identical packet arrival rates and transmission probabilities. The inhomogeneous case remains largely open in the literature. In this work, we make a first step towards this open problem by deriving throughput and delay expressions for inhomogeneous CSMA, with a particular focus on a family of MPR models called the "all-or-nothing" symmetric MPR. This family of MPR models allows us to overcome several technical challenges associated with conventional analysis and to derive accurate throughput and delay expressions in the large-systems regime. Interestingly, this family of MPR models is still general enough to include a number of useful MPR techniques - such as successive interference cancellation (SIC), compute-and-forward (C&F), and successive compute-and-forward (SCF) - as special cases. Based on these throughput and delay expressions, we provide theoretical guidelines for meeting quality-of-service requirements and for achieving global stability; we also evaluate the performances of various MPR techniques, highlighting the clear advantages offered by SCF.