The Cost of Synchronizing Multiple-Access Channels

Abstract

Multiple access channel is a communication model in which many users, also called stations, could exchange information. Since it offers limited capacity, some information sent through it might be lost due to signal interference (collision). Therefore, successful message delivery to a station requires breaking symmetry on the channel. In this work we consider the channel-synchronization problem on non-synchronized channels: assuming stations with messages wake-up dynamically on the channel, what is the minimum (expected) time needed for all stations to receive at least one message each.