Performance of ARQ Go-Back-N protocol in Markov channels with unreliable feedback

In this paper, an ARQ Go-Back-N protocol with time-out mechanism is studied. Transmissions on both the forward and the reverse channels are assumed to be subject to Markovian errors. A recently developed approach, based on renewal theory, is further extended and the steady state number of packets in the ARQ system is evaluated. This allows us to determine analytically both throughput and transmission delay of the system. Simulation results, that confirm the analysis, are also presented. Based on the analysis, the trade-off involved in the choice of the time-out parameter is identified and discussed. 1 Introduction Two types of error control techniques have been used extensively to enhance the reliability of data transmissions. In Forward Error Control (FEC), redundancy is introduced in order to correctly decode a corrupted packet, and in Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ), erroneous packets are detected and their retransmission requested [1]. With the resurgence of interest in wireless ..