On bounding the number of mobiles sharing a slot in a point-to-multipoint network

Abstract

Multiple antenna techniques are widely being recognized as front-runners in improving the performance of a wireless network. Sharing a slot between two Mobile Stations (MSs) is defined in a Point-to-Multipoint (PMP) network, independent of the number of antennas at each MS. However, sharing a slot among more than two MSs in a PMP network is not studied in the literature. In this paper, we study if more than two MSs can share a slot for transmission. We find that there exists few realistic scenarios where more than two MSs can share a slot, thus improving the throughput of the network. We observe that the number of MSs sharing a slot is dependent not only on the number of antennas at each MS but also the multiple antenna technique utilized for transmission. When each MS has a constant rate requirement of 2 bps/Hz, we found that 3 MSs can share a slot when each MS uses Spatial Multiplexing techniques, while 4 MSs can share a slot when each MS uses Spatial Diversity techniques for transmission.