  Random Access (RA) Medium Access (MAC) protocols are simple and effective
when the nature of the traffic is unpredictable and random. In the following
paper, a novel RA protocol called Enhanced Contention Resolution ALOHA (ECRA)
is presented. This evolution, based on the previous Contention Resolution ALOHA
(CRA) protocol, exploits the nature of the interference in unslotted Aloha-like
channels for trying to resolve most of the partial collision that can occur
there. In the paper, the idea behind ECRA is presented together with numerical
simulations and a mathematical analysis of its performance gain. It is shown
that relevant performance increases in both throughput and Packet Error Rate
(PER) can be reached by ECRA with respect to CRA. A comparison with Contention
Resolution Diversity Slotted ALOHA (CRDSA) is also provided.
