A post to reinforce the recommended use of contention slots (formerly called control slots) in a 450 system.
This applies equally to 450, 450i and 450m.
An additional data point to note is that for every two miles of "Max Range" that is in the system, one fewer symbol will be available per frame. That is, the total throughput will be slightly less due to a higher Max Range setting.
A similar phenomenon occurs when increasing the number of contention slots, but it may make the sector more efficient as described in the attached paper.
- PMP_450_Contention_Slots.pdf (452 KB)