Appraisement of IEEE 802.11s based Mesh Networks with Mean Backoff Algorithm

Abstract

Wireless mesh networks, consisting of mesh routers and mesh clients are very robust, reliable and easily maintained networks. The current work is based on IEEE 802.11 standard amendment IEEE 802.11s specific for mesh topology based networks to improve the connectivity and coverage. It aims to control the shared medium access among the stations using Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) MAC protocol for reducing collisions and delays, thereby increasing throughput of the network.. The actual Binary Exponential Backoff (BEB) algorithm as implemented in IEEE 802.11 resets the contention window to its least value after an acknowledged transmission. From the previous works it has been observed that this sudden reset to minimum value of contention window does not ensure a reduction in collisions. It may lead to more contention in the network thereby increasing delays and affecting its throughput. The proposed work presents a Mean Backoff Algorithm in order to solve this flaw of BEB algorithm. The proposed algorithm aims to bring the contention window to some appropriate value in order to cope up with the unfairness caused due to its minimum value on successful transmission.