Effect of hidden terminals on the performance of IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol

Author

Khurana, Sumit ; Kahol, Anurag ; Jayasumana, Anura P.

Author_Institution

Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO, USA

fYear

1998

fDate

11-14 Oct 1998

Firstpage

12

Lastpage

20

Abstract

The hidden terminal problem is unique to wireless networks and as of now there is very limited understanding about its effects on network performance. Results are presented from a simulation study of the IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol when operating in the presence of hidden terminals. We also propose a framework for modeling hidden terminals which can handle complex scenarios of both mobility and static obstructions. Our simulations indicate that hidden terminals can have a very detrimental effect on the performance of the IEEE 802. 11 MAC protocol. Although the throughput is acceptable when about 10 percent of station pairs are hidden, the packet delay can increase by an order of magnitude. The performance of the protocol drops sharply when the number of hidden pairs exceeds 10 percent

Keywords

IEEE standards; access protocols; cellular radio; delays; packet switching; performance evaluation; telecommunication standards; telecommunication terminals; wireless LAN; IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol; cellular radio; hidden terminals; mobility; network performance; packet delay; simulation study; static obstructions; throughput; wireless local area networks; Costs; Electrical capacitance tomography; Electronic switching systems; Humans; Media Access Protocol; Physical layer; Read only memory; Security; Wireless LAN; Wireless communication;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Local Computer Networks, 1998. LCN '98. Proceedings., 23rd Annual Conference on

Conference_Location

Lowell, MA

ISSN

0742-1303

Print_ISBN

0-8186-8810-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/LCN.1998.727642

Filename

727642