An Adaptive Window Scheme for Backoff in 802.11 MAC Protocol

Abstract

We propose an extremely simple window adaptation scheme for backoff in 802.11 MAC protocol. The scheme uses constant stepsize stochastic approximation to adjust collision probabilities to set values, using an approximate analytic relationship between this probability and the back-off window. A further variation of this scheme also adapts the set points. Simulations show that our schemes, particularly the latter, ensure very good throughput and fairness.