Modeling the 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function in Nonsaturated Heterogeneous Conditions

Analysis of the 802.11 CSMA/CA mechanism has received considerable attention recently. Bianchi [1] presents an analytic model under a saturated traffic assumption. Bianchi’s model is accurate, but typical network conditions are nonsaturated. We present an extension of his model to a nonsaturated environment. Its predictions are validated against simulation and are found to accurately capture many interesting features of non-saturated operation. Index Terms — Wireless LAN, IEEE 802.11 MAC, nonsaturated traffic, performance evaluation.