Aloha-type random-access protocols have been employed as access-control protocols in wireline and wireless, and stationary and mobile, multiple-access communications networks. They are frequently employed by the control and signaling subsystem of demand-assigned multiple-access protocols for regulating the sharing of a multiaccess communications channel. The correct design and sizing of the ran...

Evaluating novel networked protocols and services requires subjecting the target system to realistic Internet conditions. However, there is no common understanding of what is required to capture such realism. Conventional wisdom suggests that competing background traffic will influence service and protocol behavior. Once again however, there is no understanding of what aspects of background tra...