On the Shannon capacity and queueing stability of random access multicast

We study and compare the Shannon capacity region and the stable throughput region for a random access system in which source nodes multicast their messages to multiple destination nodes. Under an erasure channel model which accounts for interference and allows for multipacket reception, we first characterize the Shannon capacity region. We then consider a queueing-theoretic formulation and characterize the stable throughput region for two different transmission policies: a retransmission policy and random linear coding. Our results indicate that for large blocklengths, the random linear coding policy provides a higher stable throughput than the retransmission policy. However, for small blocklengths, the retransmission scheme provides a higher stable throughput. Furthermore, our results provide an example of a transmission policy for which the Shannon capacity region strictly outer bounds the stable throughput region, which contradicts an unproven conjecture that the Shannon capacity and stable throughput coincide for random access systems.