Evaluating the performance of IEEE 802.11 network using RTS/CTS mechanism

In order to effectively analyze the performance of wireless local area networks (WLANs), it is important to identify what types of network settings can cause bad performance. Low throughput, high packet loss rate, delayed round trip time (RTT) for packets, increased retransmissions, and increased collisions are the main attributes to look for when analyzing poor network performance. We use the OPNET Modeler [1] to simulate the RTS/CTS mechanism to evaluate the performance of IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol [6]. We have simulated two scenarios with and without RTS/CTS mechanism enabled on network nodes. We have concluded our findings by comparing the total WLAN retransmissions, data traffic sent/received, WLAN Delay of two scenarios. RTS/CTS mechanism is helpful to reduce the number of retransmissions if hidden node problem persists in network scenarios.