Performance of wireless LANs based on IEEE 802.11 MAC protocols

Hongqiang Zhai, Yuguang Fang

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary WorksRGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication)peer-review

30 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol has been the standard for Wireless LANs, and also adopted in many network simulation packages for wireless multi-hop ad hoc networks. However, it is well known that, as the traffic goes up, the performance of IEEE 802.11 MAC drops dramatically in terms of delay and throughput, especially when the station approaches its saturation state. To explore the inherent problems in this protocol, it is important to characterize the probability distribution of the packet service time at the MAC layer. In this paper, by modeling the exponential backoff process as a Markov chain, we can use the signal transfer function of the generalized state transition diagram to derive the probability distribution of the MAC layer service time. We then present the discrete probability distribution for MAC layer packet service time, which is shown to accurately match the simulation data from network simulations. Finally, based on the probability model for the MAC layer service time, we are able to analyze a few performance metrics of the wireless LAN and give better explanation to the performance degradation in delay and throughput at various traffic load. © 2003 IEEE.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationPIMRC2003 - 14th IEEE 2003 International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications, Proceedings
Pages2586-2590
Volume3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2003
Externally publishedYes
Event14th IEEE 2003 International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications, PIMRC2003 - Beijing, China
Duration: 7 Sept 200310 Sept 2003

Publication series

NameIEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications, PIMRC
Volume3

Conference

Conference14th IEEE 2003 International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications, PIMRC2003
PlaceChina
CityBeijing
Period7/09/0310/09/03

Bibliographical note

Publication details (e.g. title, author(s), publication statuses and dates) are captured on an “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE” basis at the time of record harvesting from the data source. Suggestions for further amendments or supplementary information can be sent to [email protected].

Research Keywords

  • 802.11 MAC
  • Performance analysis
  • Queue dynamics

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