A New Analytic Method for IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function

Abstract

In this paper, we consider a network of N identical IEEE 802.11 DCF (Distributed Coordination Function) terminals with RTS/CTS mechanism, each of which is assumed to be saturated. For performance analysis, we propose a simple and efficient mathematical model to derive the statistical characteristics of the network such as the inter-transmission time of packets in the network and the service time (the inter-transmission time of successful packet transmissions) of the network. Numerical results and simulations are provided to validate the accuracy of our model and to study the performance of the IEEE 802.11 DCF network.