Modeling IEEE 802.11 DCF under Nonsaturated Condition with Coupled Queues Effect

For analysis of the IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function (DCF) under nonsaturated condition, one of the key assumptions commonly accepted is that given the offered load, the queue utilizations of contending nodes are the same for all transmitted packets. In practice, however, this assumption is not valid due to coupled queues effect. In this paper, we investigate the influence brought by coupled queues and propose an accurate analytical model for IEEE 802.11-based networks under nonsaturated condition. The simulations show the accuracy of the analytical model.