We consider a broad class of queueing models with random state-dependent
vacation periods, which arise in the analysis of queue-based back-off
algorithms in wireless random-access networks. In contrast to conventional
models, the vacation periods may be initiated after each service completion,
and can be randomly terminated with certain probabilities that depend on the
queue length. We examine the scaled queue length and delay in a heavy-traffic
regime, and demonstrate a sharp trichotomy, depending on how the activation
rate and vacation probability behave as function of the queue length. In
particular, the effect of the vacation periods may either (i) completely vanish
in heavy-traffic conditions, (ii) contribute an additional term to the queue
lengths and delays of similar magnitude, or even (iii) give rise to an
order-of-magnitude increase. The heavy-traffic asymptotics are obtained by
combining stochastic lower and upper bounds with exact results for some
specific cases. The heavy-traffic trichotomy provides valuable insight in the
impact of the back-off algorithms on the delay performance in wireless
random-access networks