Medium Access Protocols for Interconnecting ATM and Wireless Networks

The current trend in modern telecommunication is that most of the traffic (CBR, VBR and ABR, real-time and delay-insensitive) in the fixed broadband networks will be carried by fixed-length packets. It is desirable to extend the services to wireless networks as well. However, one major difficulty in wireless networks is the limited spectrum available. Another difficulty is that the bit error rate (BER) of the wireless channel is typically much higher than that of the channels of the wireline broadband networks. The latter problem is amplified for military wireless networks that experience substantial link interference (e.g., multipath fading, other-user interference jamming). Therefore, we can only expect that the same services are being carried in a similar fashion but with a lower source rate. In this paper, a medium access protocol for interconnecting ATM and wireless networks is discussed, followed by some alternatives, and other issues pertaining to guaranteeing low BER. This research was conducted in support of Task 1.1 of the ATIRP project during FY 96 and continues under Task 4.3 for FY 97