Destination buffer analysis for packets rejection obliteration in multi-channel networks

In this paper we study a multi-channel network, each station of which is equipped with a network interface that has a receiver buffer of multiple packets. In this way, each station is able to receive multiple packets per time instant. We adopt a synchronous access protocol which is affected by the collisions over the multiple channels and the destination conflicts. The proposed protocol performance crucially depends on the size of the receiver buffer since it determines the packet rejection probability at destination. An analytical probabilistic model based on a Markovian process is adopted for the performance measures derivation by means of closed mathematical formulas. The proposed protocol is compared to relative ones that either totally ignore the receiver collisions or assume a receiver buffer of a single packet capacity. The numerical results show that the increase of the receiver buffer size improves the performance decisively, resulting in higher throughput and lower delay and rejection probability. Also, it is shown that the appropriate receiver buffer size per station in order for the rejections at destination to be effectively eliminated is not unlimited but is limited to three packets for 0.1% accepted maximum level of rejection probability.