Analysis and Throughput Performance of IEEE 802.11 DCF in Multi-hop Wireless Networks

Abstract

This paper presents a simple and more accurate linear approximation model to compute the throughput for a saturated IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function using the Request to Send/Clear to Send mechanism for multi-hop wireless networks. The linear approximation model is closer to reality since it takes a majority of the factors that are neglected in previous works. Most of the previous works provide complex nonlinear system equations that are difficult to set their parameters in simulation or experiments. In addition, analytical results for these nonlinear models are difficult to verify and some equations are given without clear proof. Some other works also attempt to provide approximate solutions to the nonlinear system. This paper introduces a new linear approximation model that reduces the complexity of the nonlinear analytical model. We investigate the linear approximation model with different values of the maximum backoff stage and number of nodes. Analytical results show that the linear approximation model outperforms the renowned non-linear approximation model.