SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RANDOMIZED ANTENNA ALLOCATION IN ASYNCHRONOUS MIMO MULTI-HOP NETWORKS

A system and method for simultaneous and asynchronous transmissions in multi-antenna multi-hop networks. The system and method employ randomized and non-greedy resource allocation to counter starvation. The system and method define a class of asynchronous random access protocols subsuming MIMO systems via two components. Residual Capacity Estimation and Randomized Resource Allocation. The system and method realize the first asynchronous MIMO MAC protocol that counters flow starvation in multi-hop networks. Randomized and non-greedy antenna allocation coupled with local residual capacity estimation results in previously-starving nodes capturing a fair share of system resources while simultaneously exploiting throughput gains available to multi-antenna systems.