Reliability and performance of general two-dimensional broadcast wireless network

Abstract

In this paper, an analytic model is built to study the medium access control (MAC) performance and reliability of general two-dimensional (2-D) IEEE 802.11 based wireless networks for one-hop broadcast communications. First, a semi-Markov process (SMP) model is introduced to capture the medium contention and backoff behavior and the impact of hidden terminal problem in IEEE 802.11 broadcast wireless networks in a more precise way. An M/G/1/K queue is used to model arrival and service of messages in an individual mobile terminal. To the contention for the shared medium, the SMP model interacts with the M/G/1/K queue through fixed-point iteration. Furthermore, based on the fixed-point solution, performance metrics including packet delivery probability (PDP), MAC-level and Application-level transmission delay, and MAC-level and Application-level packet reception ratio (PRR) are derived. The 2-D PDPs are derived through a coverage area computation for the impact of hidden terminal problem and concurrent transmissions to evaluate point-to-point reception probability, and then through integration of the reception probabilities over the circular intended range of the sending node. The analytical model takes into account IEEE 802.11 backoff counter process, hidden terminal problem, message inter-arrival interval, distinct transmission range, carrier sensing and interference ranges, and Nakagami fading channel with distance dependent path loss. Finally, as an example, the proposed analytic model is applied to a 2-D ad hoc network. The new model is validated through extensive simulations and new observations about the effects of network parameters on the performance and reliability are obtained.