Analysis of the Channel Access Mechanism in IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Networks

Abstract

IEEE 802.11 wireless network has spread widely during the past few years. This type of network employees a carrier-sense multiple access with collision-avoidance (CSMA/CA) scheme with exponential backoff procedure. In this paper, we present a performance analysis of IEEE 802.11 channel access mechanism. The analysis captures the details of the Distributed Function Coordination (DCF), such as the contention window size, inter-frame spacing, and packet exchange sequence, and obtains the throughput for such a network with multiple number of stations. The throughput is obtained when the station packet load varies. Two packet access mechanism, namely, the basic access mechanism and the RTS/CTS access mechanism are considered in the throughput analysis. Simulation results are presented to verify the analysis.