Abstract
In WLAN the medium access control (MAC) protocol is the main element for determining the efficiency in sharing the limited communication bandwidth of the wireless channel. This paper focuses on the efficiency of the IEEE 802.11 standard for wireless LANs. Specifically, we derive an analytical formula for the protocol capacity. From this analysis we found (i) the theoretical upper bound of the IEEE 802.11 protocol capacity; (ii) that the standard can operate very far from the theoretical limits depending on the network configuration; (iii) that an appropriate tuning of the backoff algorithm can drive the IEEE 802.11 protocol close to its theoretical limits. Hence we propose a distributed algorithm which enables each station to tune its backoff algorithm at run-time. The performances of the IEEE 802.11 protocol, enhanced with our algorithm, are investigated via simulation. The results indicate that the enhanced protocol is very close to the maximum theoretical efficiency.
Keywords
Computer scienceComputer networkInter-Access Point ProtocolDistributed coordination functionIEEE 802.11sNetwork allocation vectorIEEE 802.11IEEE 802.11e-2005IEEE 802.1XWireless LAN controllerProtocol (science)Service setMedia access controlIEEE 802IEEE 802.11uIEEE 802.11b-1999Exponential backoffWireless networkWireless lanWirelessWi-FiWi-Fi arrayTelecommunicationsQuality of serviceWireless mesh network
Affiliated Institutions
Related Publications
Performance analysis of the IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function
The IEEE has standardized the 802.11 protocol for wireless local area networks. The primary medium access control (MAC) technique of 802.11 is called the distributed coordinatio...
Bluetooth and wi-fi wireless protocols: a survey and a comparison
Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) are two communication protocol standards that define a physical layer and a MAC layer for wireless communications within a short range (from a ...
Performance evaluation and enhancement of the CSMA/CA MAC protocol for 802.11 wireless LANs
The IEEE 802.11 protocol for wireless local area networks adopts a CSMA/CA protocol with exponential backoff as medium access control technique. As the throughput performance of...
IEEE 802.11-saturation throughput analysis
To satisfy the emerging need of wireless data communications, the IEEE is currently standardizing the 802.11 protocol for wireless local area networks. This standard adopts a CS...
Interference analysis of nonpersistent CSMA with hidden terminals in multicell wireless data networks
In multi-cell wireless networks such as wireless LANs under standardization (IEEE 802.11 and ETSI's HIPERLAN), we must consider interference interaction among different cells as...
Publication Info
- Year
- 2002
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 1
- Pages
- 142-149
- Citations
- 346
- Access
- Closed
External Links
Social Impact
Altmetric
PlumX Metrics
Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions
Citation Metrics
346
OpenAlex
Cite This
F. Cali,
Marco Conti,
Enrico Gregori
(2002).
IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN: capacity analysis and protocol enhancement.
, 1
, 142-149.
https://doi.org/10.1109/infcom.1998.659648
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1109/infcom.1998.659648