Design of an effective loss-distinguishable MAC protocol for 802.11 WLAN

In the IEEE 802.11 WLAN standard, the backoff algorithm assumes that all losses are due to collisions, while the automatic rate fallback algorithm assumes that all losses are due to link errors. The coexistence of these two types of losses in real networks reduces the efficiency of currently used algorithms. We propose a loss-distinguishable MAC layer protocol for 802.11 WLAN. No PHY layer modification is needed. Analysis shows that the new protocol is effective and has negligible overhead.