The effect of signals on stability, throughput region, and delay in a two-user slotted ALOHA based random-access system with collisions is considered. This work gives rise to the development of random access G-networks, which can model virus attacks or other malfunctions and introduce load balancing in highly interacting networks. The users are equipped with infinite capacity buffers accepting external bursty arrivals. We consider both negative and triggering signals. Negative signals delete a packet from a user queue, while triggering signals cause the instantaneous transfer of packets among user queues. We obtain the exact stability region, and show that the stable throughput region is a subset of it. Moreover, we perform a compact mathematical analysis to obtain exact expressions for the queueing delay by solving a Riemann boundary value problem. A computationally efficient way to obtain explicit bounds for the queueing delay is also presented. The theoretical findings are numerically evaluated and insights regarding the system performance are derived.
We introduce a new class of random neural networks in which signals are either negative or positive. A positive signal arriving at a neuron increases its total signal count or potential by one; a negative signal reduces it by one if the potential is positive, and has no effect if it is zero. When its potential is positive, a neuron fires, sending positive or negative signals at random intervals to neurons or to the outside. Positive signals represent excitatory signals and negative signals represent inhibition. We show that this model, with exponential signal emission intervals, Poisson external signal arrivals, and Markovian signal movements between neurons, has a product form leading to simple analytical expressions for the system state.