Voice and data transmissions with a PRMA-like protocol in high propagation delay cellular systems

Future mobile communication systems will require new medium access control protocols to attain an efficient multiplexing of different traffic sources while guaranteeing their requirements on quality of service. This paper investigates the performance of a modified packet reservation multiple access (PRMA) protocol, called PRMA with hindering states (PRMA-HS), for supporting voice and data transmissions in mobile cellular systems with high propagation delays. A scenario based on low earth orbit mobile satellite systems (LEO-MSSs) has been considered, but the analytical approach is general. We have obtained that PRMA-HS achieves a high capacity of voice sources in LEO-MSSs also in the presence of data traffic. A performance analysis has been carried out showing good agreement with simulation results. Finally, the PRMA-HS performance has been evaluated in the presence of different data traffic sources.