MAC layer performance modelling for IEEE 802.15.7 based on discrete-time Markov chain

Abstract

Potential lack of enough wireless frequency spectrum has guided researchers towards visible light communication (VLC), emerging as a sturdy support to Wi-Fi. Though the IEEE 802.15.7 standard has comprehensive medium access control (MAC) and physical (PHY) layer specifications, the emerging VLC technology still faces MAC challenges. Further, throughput is one of the major concerns for the VLC personal area network (VPAN) as it directly impacts the network speed. We propose a novel Markov chain model with two clear channel assessments, which proves to be a significant milestone in improving the network throughput for a star topology VPAN. This paper extends the already available analytical models for the MAC layer to efficiently plan and predict the VPAN performance. We also extensively evaluate other network metrics, like network collision probability and end-to-end epoch, to demonstrate the proposed model's applicability. We verify the model's analytical results with elaborate MATLAB simulations and obtain good estimation, especially for large network sizes.