Resequencing delay and buffer occupancy in selective repeat ARQ with multiple receivers

Abstract

The authors consider an SR ARQ (selective-repeat automatic-repeat-request) protocol with the one source and multiple receivers, where each receiver acknowledges all packets and handles its resequencing buffer based only on the packets that it receives error-free. An analysis of the resequencing delay and buffer occupancy at a receiver is presented. They construct a model that allows them to derive steady-state results and that makes into consideration system parameters such as number of receivers, propagation delay, and error probabilities of packets and acknowledgements. The main results of the analysis are the distribution of the resequencing delay and the distribution of the number of packets occupying the receiver's buffer. They also derive simple expressions for the mean buffer occupancy at the limit as the packet error probability tends to one. Numerical results are provided to illustrate the effects of system parameters on the behavior of the expected resequencing delay and the expected buffer occupancy.<>