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In the slotted ALOHA model, a station retains one packet until it successfully transmits. Conditional on $(S_t,N_t)=(S,N)$, take fresh independent trials with a Bernoulli distribution of parameter $1/S$ for the $N$ backlogged stations. Let arrivals be independent across slots and independent of these trials, with Poisson distribution of mean $\nu$. New arrivals join the next slot's backlog. An idle slot serves nobody, exactly one attempt serves one packet, and a collision serves nobody. Consequently the backlog changes by arrivals minus the success indicator.

Under these independence assumptions, $(S_t,N_t)$ is a time-homogeneous Markov chain: the feedback probabilities and the independent arrival law depend only on its current state. Merely specifying Poisson arrival marginals would not suffice. For example, take $S_t=1$, $a=b=c=0$, $N_0=0$, and arrivals $Y_0=H$, $Y_1=K$, $Y_2=H$ for independent random variables $H,K$ with Poisson distributions. Histories with $(N_1,N_2)=(0,2)$ and $(2,2)$ both have current backlog two, but the next backlog is respectively two and four. The usual model therefore includes fresh arrivals as an assumption.

Write $p_0=(1-1/S{)}^N$ and $p_1=(N/S)(1-1/S{)}^{N-1}$. Set $p_1=0$ for $N=0$, and use their exact binomial distribution probabilities at $S=1$. Away from the clipping boundary, the conditional drifts areNear $S=1$, the latter must use $\max (1,S+d)-S$ for each update $d$, rather than $d$ itself.

When both coordinates are large with $N/S\to \kappa$, the Poisson limit theorem approximates the attempt count, which has a binomial distribution, by a Poisson distribution of mean $\kappa$. Thus $p_0\to e^{-\kappa }$ and $p_1\to \kappa e^{-\kappa }$. Rescaling state by $K$ and slot time by $K$ motivates the fluid approximation of slotted ALOHAThis is an interior fluid approximation of slotted ALOHA, not the exact conditional drift at a clipped boundary.

Here is one explicit set of sufficient conditions, independent of the arrival rate within the subcritical range:Put $c_0=2/(e-2)$. ThenHence $g$ is negative below one and positive above one: the controller decreases the attempt denominator when offered contention is too small, and increases it when contention is too large.

Use the ratio time change for a homogeneous fluid model, $du/dt=1/s$. The equations becomeFor $\kappa \ge 1$,since $g(\kappa )\ge 0$ and $A(1+c_0)>1$. Also $h(1)=\nu -e^{-1}<0$. Therefore $h$ is negative on $[1,\infty )$, and by continuity on $[\bar{\kappa },\infty )$ for some $\bar{\kappa }<1$. Its value at zero is $\nu \ge 0$, so nonnegative backlog is preserved.

The ratio remains bounded by $K=\max (\kappa (0),1)$ and eventually enters $[0,\bar{\kappa }]$: on the compact interval $[\bar{\kappa },K]$, its derivative is bounded above by a strictly negative number. Once inside it cannot cross upward. The bounded ratio and smooth coefficients make the transformed equations exist for all $u\ge 0$. In this region $g(\kappa )\le g(\bar{\kappa })<0$, so $s(u)$ decreases at least exponentially in $u$. The original time satisfies $t(u)={\int }_0^{u}s(v)dv$ and has a finite limit $T$; boundedness of $\kappa$ gives $n(u)=\kappa (u)s(u)\to 0$ as well. Thus every nonnegative interior fluid trajectory drains to the origin in finite fluid time. At the origin the ratio equation is undefined; the usual stopped fluid trajectory is held there afterward. A state with $s=0<n$ enters the interior under the continuous limiting boundary drift $\dot{s}=c>0$; the same argument then applies.

This proof supplies sufficient conditions, not a characterization of every stabilizing triplet. It also does not assert the positive recurrent Markov chain property of the original stochastic chain solely from the heuristic ODE.

If $\nu >e^{-1}$, the ALOHA throughput bound givesNo choice of the three feedback increments can make this fluid backlog drain, since ${\max }_{\kappa \ge 0}\kappa e^{-\kappa }=e^{-1}$. For the displayed controller, the supercritical fluid trajectory is global and grows instead of draining. At $\nu =e^{-1}$ the ray $n=s>0$ consists of stationary fluid states, explaining why the strict load inequality matters.

This feedback family in slotted ALOHA gives $g(\kappa )=A\{2/(e-2)-[e/(e-2)](1+\kappa )e^{-\kappa }\}$, which changes sign at contention ratio one. For $0\le \nu <e^{-1}$, the ratio drift $h=\nu -\kappa e^{-\kappa }-\kappa g$ is strictly negative on $[1,\infty )$ and on some interval beginning below one. The ratio time change for a homogeneous fluid model traps the ratio in a region where $g<0$ and proves finite-time draining. For $\nu >e^{-1}$, backlog drift is at least $\nu -e^{-1}>0$ regardless of this controller. These are statements about the interior fluid model, not a stand-alone theorem of stochastic stability.