Approaching Optimal Centralized Scheduling with CSMA- based Random Access over Fading Channels

Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) based distributed algorithms can attain the largest capacity region asthe centralized Max-Weight policy does. Despite their capabilityof achieving throughput-optimality, these algorithms can eitherincur large delay and have large complexity or only operateover non-fading channels. In this letter, by assuming arbitraryback-off time we first propose a fully distributed randomizedalgorithm whose performance can be pushed to the performanceof the centralized Max-Weight policy not only in terms ofthroughput but also in terms of delay for completely-connectedinterference networks with fading channels. Then, inspired by theproposed algorithm we introduce an implementable distributedalgorithm for practical networks with a reservation scheme. Weshow that the proposed practical algorithm can still achieve theperformance of the centralized Max-Weight polic