Performance analysis of 802.11 WLANs under sporadic traffic

Abstract

We analyze the performance of 802.11 WLANs that employ the Distributed Coordination Function (DCF). We consider contending stations within radio proximity, and investigate the case in which stations operate under nonsaturated conditions. Our modelling technique can be used to study several important issues in 802.11 networks, such as the impact of bursty traffic and the system performance in a multirate environment. The accuracy of the analytical results is verified by simulation with ns-2. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2005.