A Multi-Replica Decoding Technique for Contention Resolution Diversity Slotted Aloha

This paper proposes a new method for data reception over a random access channel in a satellite communication system. The method is called Multi-replicA decoding using corRelation baSed locALisAtion (MARSALA). It uses the same transmission scheme as in Contention Resolution Diversity Slotted Aloha (CRDSA) where each user sends several replicas of the same packet over the frame. MARSALA is a new decoding technique that localises all the replicas of a packet using a correlation based method, then combines them to decode the data. With MARSALA, the system can achieve a normalized throughput higher than 1.2, resulting in a significant gain compared to CRDSA, while adding a relatively low implementation complexity at the receiver. We also highlight on the practical issues related to channel estimation and how to perform coherent signal combination in MARSALA.