Performance of multichannel CSMA networks

Abstract

Channel sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) is a very simple and efficient way of allowing many stations to transmit messages to a central server down a shared channel. In wireless networks, however, collision detection is difficult to implement, and in such cases CSMA alone may have to be used. In this paper, it is shown that a multichannel CSMA network can be almost as efficient in utilizing the bandwidth available to the network as an equivalent single-channel CSMA/CD network. Furthermore, multichannel CSMA networks provide better throughput and delay performance than equivalent single channel CSMA systems, even when the message generation probability and the number of stations in the network are varied.