Fairness and throughput performance of infrastructure IEEE 802.11 networks with hidden-nodes

The fairness behavior and throughput performance of IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function and request-to-send/clear-to-send channel access scheme in the presence of hidden nodes are investigated. A mathematical model which accurately predicts a user’s throughput performance and packet collision probability in non-saturated traffic and asymmetric hidden node environments is developed. The model allows us to see many interesting results in networks with hidden nodes. In an asymmetric hidden node network environment, the network fairness performance depends on the traffic load. In low traffic conditions, users get their fair share of the resources. However, in moderate-to-high traffic conditions, users that experience less number of hidden nodes dominate the network, causing badly located stations in a network to starve. In addition, the performance of request-to-send/clear-to-send channel access scheme, which is developed as a solution to hidden node problem, in networks with hidden nodes, is also estimated. It is shown that request-to-send/clear-to-send contention resolution scheme greatly improves the network fairness performance in hidden node scenarios. The developed model enables us to more accurately estimate the performance of practical wireless local area networks, where hidden node occurrence is common. Theoretical analysis presented in the paper is validated with simulation results.