A Self-Tuning Contention Resolution Scheme for IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN

In the IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networks (LAN), mobile nodes employ a contention resolution scheme called binary exponential backoff (BEB) algorithm. Although it is simple and robust, the BEB scheme reportedly suffers from lower throughput and unfairness problems. In this work we propose a new contention resolution scheme called self-tuning backoff (STB) algorithm where each node continuously estimates the number of contending nodes and adjusts accordingly its contention window that maximizes system throughput. Numerical results show that the STB scheme outperforms the BEB and other alternative schemes in terms of throughput over a wide range of network conditions