This paper introduces a hierarchical Wireless Random Access scheme based on power control where intelligence is split among the mobile users in order to drive the outcome of the system towards an efficient point. The hierarchical game is obtained by introducing a special user who plays the role of altruistic leader whereas the other users assume the role of followers. We define the power control scheme in such a way that the leader first chooses the lowest power to transmit its packets among.. available levels whereas the followers re-transmit by randomly choosing a power level picked from N - 1 higher distinct power levels. Using a 3D Markovian model, we compute the steady state of the system and derive the average system throughput and expected packet transmission delay. Our numerical results show that the proposed scheme considerably improves the global performance of the system avoiding the well known throughput collapse at high loads commonly characterizing most random channel access mechanisms.

We present a team analysis of a slotted random wireless channel access mechanism. Under the proposed scheme, denoted wireless random access mechanism with multiple power levels (MPL-WRA), each mobile station contends for a transmission opportunity following the principles of a slotted access mechanism incorporating a random transmitting power value selected among various available power levels. In this way, a capture effect may be produced allowing the packet to be decoded whenever the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio is higher than a given threshold. In order to analyze the performance and optimization of the proposed setup, we build aMarkovian model integrating the wireless access mechanism supplemented by the use of multiple power levels in an attractive and simple cross-layer fashion. We follow a team problem approach allowing us to fine tune the design parameters of the overall system configuration. Throughout an extensive numerical analysis, our main results set the basis for the social optimal system configuration of the proposed mechanism taking into account the physical constraints of using multiple power levels and the actual practical implementation of a slotted access mechanism. We end the paper with concluding remarks and future research directions including guidelines for the actual implementation of our proposal.