Throughput Analysis of the IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function Considering Capture Effects

Currently, IEEE 802.11 is the de facto standard for WLANs. It species both the medium access control and the physical layers for WLANs. The scope of IEEE 802.11 working groups (WGs) is to propose and develop MAC and PHY layer specifications for WLAN to handle mobile and portable stations. In this standard, the MAC layer operates on top of one of several possible physical layers. Medium access is performed using carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA). In this paper, we present an analytical model to analyze the saturation performance of IEEE 802.11 MAC layer with capture effects. We extend the multidimensional Markov chain model initially proposed by Bianchi[3] to characterize the behavior of DCF considering capture effects.