Queueing analysis of DCHF and HF token protocol with varying turnaround time

Wireless networks are generally characterized by a medium shared among a group of users. This makes an appropriate media access control (MAC) protocol essential for efficient channel utilization. Wireless MAC protocols show significant performance degradation in some challenging networks (e.g., military HF radio) that are characterized by long link-layer turnaround times, and most of the recent research does not address this problem. This paper develops queueing and simulation models for wireless MAC protocols from two functional categories that are suitable for such networks: DCHF, a contention-based MAC protocol and the contention-free HF token protocol. We explore their statistical performance for varying link-layer turnaround times under varying Poisson loads. The results indicate the performance effects of factors such as link turnaround time, network size, and traffic loading on wireless MAC protocols.