Performance Analysis of Chain Topology in IEEE 802.11 Multi-hop Ad hoc Networks

In this paper, we provide a simple, but nevertheless quite precise, analytical model to characterize the short-time unfairness of 802.11 DCF and its effect to the stability of the route in ad hoc networks. We demonstrate that, while pumping packets, the route made up of several wireless nodes acts just like a canal. If the input load is larger than the capacity of the route, conflicts and route broken messages usually generated in the first few nodes. The flow is very stable in the last few nodes. We also show that, for the consideration of route stability, the flow with small rate should be away from the interference range of the congested areas, since, by the result of our calculation, it is hard to get chance capture the channel media.