Performance Evaluation of Multichannel Slotted-ALOHA Networks with Buffering

In the area of networking, as in computer systems, performance evaluation problems typically arise in scenarios where the availability of resources is limited. In many situations, buffering is provisioned at the resource site. This is the case of multiplexers and switches, where a buffer may precede a processing unit or a communication link. In other situations, buffering cannot be provisioned at the resource site, as it happens when several data sources directly transmit over a shared medium. In this case, some multiple access mechanism is required. In general, both problems have been separately addressed in the literature. In this paper, we perform an exact analysis of a combined problem, which includes a contention segment followed by a buffering segment. Particularly, we focus on a multichannel slotted ALOHA network with buffering. The analysis points out some interesting tradeoffs between the contention segment and the buffering segment.