Performance analysis and simulation of MAC layer in WLAN

Abstract

This paper proposes and discusses the modification and extension of the present Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) to use it for communication system to enhance its performance in the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. The Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol is the primary element determining how efficiently the limited communication bandwidth of the wireless channel is shared in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). It is crucial that the MAC protocol should provide robustness and fairness among users. This paper also discusses the simulation results for understanding the variation in number of transmissions and collisions for different communication stations, packet size, mobility, difference between Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA-CA) and CSMA-CA with RTS-CTS. It also shows the simulation results; number of transmissions and collisions for varying different parameters. And also CSMA-CA and CSMA-CA with RTS-CTS cases are calculated in the simulation. For CSMA-CA and CSMA-CA with RTS-CTS cases, Distributed Co-ordination Function (DCF) is used. In the simulation, we used three to seven stations. Simulation duration is 10000 ms.