Abstract-Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) based distributed algorithms can attain the largest capacity region as the centralized Max-Weight policy does. Despite their capability of achieving throughput-optimality, these algorithms can either incur large delay and have large complexity or only operate over non-fading channels. In this letter, by assuming arbitrary back-off time we first propose a fully distributed randomized algorithm whose performance can be pushed to the performance of the centralized Max-Weight policy not only in terms of throughput but also in terms of delay for completely-connected interference networks with fading channels. Then, inspired by the proposed algorithm we introduce an implementable distributed algorithm for practical networks with a reservation scheme. We show that the proposed practical algorithm can still achieve the performance of the centralized Max-Weight policy.Index Terms-Max-Weight scheduling, CSMA, queue stability, distributed algorithm, fading channels.
I. INTRODUCTIONThe major challenge of channel access management in wireless networks is optimally scheduling users so that interference is eliminated and the maximum performance in terms of throughput, delay, jitter, etc., can be achieved. The centralized Max-Weight algorithm (MW) [1] can achieve maximum throughput, and can stabilize the network. However, due to the huge complexity of MW algorithm Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) based algorithms have received significant attention from many researchers. In [2], [3], [4] and [5], CSMA based throughput optimal algorithms are developed for nonfading channels, which, however, suffer from either poor delay performance or high complexity. The authors in [6] present an optimal scheduling algorithm for deadline constrained-traffic by assuming continuous back-off time which is impossible to implement, and also the optimality does not hold for practical systems. Also, the performance of the discrete time version of the algorithm in [6] can be quite poor. The authors in [7] try to address the poor delay performance of CSMA based algorithms by assuming nonfading channels. The authors in [8] and [9] try to develop MW type algorithms for practical 802.11 networks without providing any analytical guarantees.In order to be feasible and practical for wireless systems, any CSMA based algorithm should; i-) have low-complexity, and require only local information (no message passing); ii-)