Performance analysis of the IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function

Abstract

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 coordination function (DCF). The DCF is a carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) scheme with binary slotted exponential backoff. This paper provides a simple, but nevertheless extremely accurate, analytical model to compute the 802.11 DCF throughput, in the assumption of finite number of terminals and ideal channel conditions. The proposed analysis applies to both the packet transmission schemes employed by DCF, namely, the basic access and the RTS/CTS access mechanisms. In addition, it also applies to a combination of the two schemes, in which packets longer than a given threshold are transmitted according to the RTS/CTS mechanism. By means of the proposed model, we provide an extensive throughput performance evaluation of both access mechanisms of the 802.11 protocol.

Keywords

Distributed coordination functionComputer scienceExponential backoffCarrier sense multiple access with collision avoidanceComputer networkMultiple Access with Collision Avoidance for WirelessThroughputNetwork packetNetwork allocation vectorMedia access controlInter-Access Point ProtocolIEEE 802.11Access controlTransmission (telecommunications)Channel (broadcasting)Protocol (science)IEEE 802.11e-2005Wireless networkWirelessWi-FiTelecommunicationsWi-Fi array

Affiliated Institutions

University of Palermo IT

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Publication Info

Year: 2000
Type: article
Volume: 18
Issue: 3
Pages: 535-547
Citations: 8565
Access: Closed

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APA Style

                            
                                    Giuseppe Bianchi
                                
                            (2000). 
                            Performance analysis of the IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function. 
                            IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
                            , 18
                            (3)
                            , 535-547.
                            https://doi.org/10.1109/49.840210

Identifiers

DOI: 10.1109/49.840210