Performance analysis of a Multi-Rate IEEE 802.11 MAC with network coding

In our paper, we propose a Multi-Rate IEEE 802.11b MAC protocol with network coding. The standard X-OR operation is used in the network coding. Two topologies of paired topology and random topology are considered. The analytical framework is formulated for n stations. The state transition diagram is modeled by a two-dimensional discrete-time Markov chain. One dimension of the Markov chain is for the backoff stage and the second dimension is for the value of the backoff counter. The saturated throughputs are formulated by nested summations of saturated throughputs. Numerical results of the saturated throughput corresponding to typical parameter values are presented. These results show the advantage of the proposed Multi-Rate IEEE 802.11b MAC protocol with network coding over a basic IEEE 802.11b MAC protocol using RTS/CTS access method. Our new analytical formulations of the saturated throughputs of these MAC protocols can be used even for a small number of stations.