A matrix analytic approach to study the queuing characteristics of nodes in a wireless network

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a model to study the queueing characteristics of nodes in a wireless network in which the channel access is governed by the well known binary exponential back off rule. By offering the general phase type (PH) distributional assumptions to channel idle and busy periods and assuming Poisson packet arrival processes at nodes, we represent the model as a quasi birth death process and analyse it by using matrix analytic methods. Stability of the system is examined. Several important queueing characteristics that help in efficient design of such systems are derived. Extensive simulation analysis is performed to establish the validity of our theoretical results.. It is shown that both the simulated and theoretical results agree on some important performance measures. Some real life data has been used to get approximate PH representations for channel idle and busy period variates, which in turn are used for numerical illustrations.