Location enhancement to IEEE 802.11 DCF

In this paper, we propose an enhancement to the existing IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function (DCF) MAC to improve channel spatial reuse efficiency, and thus improve overall network data throughput. Our modification, named the location enhanced DCF (LED) for IEEE 802.11, incorporates location information in DCF frame exchange sequences so that stations sharing the communication channel are able to make better interference predictions and blocking assessments. Utilizing an underlying physical layer design that supports frame capture, the LED enhanced interference estimation can increase overall network data throughput by permitting more concurrent transmissions. In this paper we also analytically study the potential performance enhancement of the LED over the original IEEE 802.11 DCF. The results are verified using the ns-2 simulator, which shows that up to 35% of DCF blocking decisions are unnecessary and our LED method can achieve up to 22% more throughput than the original DCF.