Mine, mine, mine: information theory, infostation networks, and resource sharing

The Infostations wireless data network architecture features discontinuous coverage and ultra-high radio rates for burst transfers of information between base and mobile. It has been shown previously that the infostations architecture can greatly increase the capacity of wireless data systems at the expense of increased delivery delay. In this work we explicitly consider the multiple access issue on both the uplink and downlink – to and from an infostation respectively – and sharing of fixed network links for transporting information to and from infostations. We find that in order to maximize throughput, an infostation radio link should not be shared among users. Furthermore, this sole use paradigm is echoed in the fixed network which transports information to and from infostations. In order to minimize average delay the fixed link to any given infostation should serve users sequentially, as opposed to in a shared manner.