The random early detection concept applied to the W-CDMA UMTS medium access control

In this work we introduce the concept of Random Early Detection (RED) to a medium access control (MAC) protocol applicable to the W-CDMA UMTS access interface. The concept is in general applicable to MAC protocols that use channel load information to regulate the access to a CDMA channel. By making the analogy of a CDMA channel as if it was a queuing system of certain capacity, RED prevents the onset of outage due to multiple access interference, in the same way that it prevents a burst of packet losses in an IP buffer. As a result, a substantial improvement in the stability of the protocol is achieved, for a wide range of input traffic loads.