Energy-Efficient L2 Transmission Scheme in IEEE 802.11 WLAN

We propose an energy-efficient L2 transmission scheme using the protocol property of Non-Real-Time (NRT) traffic in IEEE 802.11 WLANs. Typically, the collision probability at the Access Point (AP) and the retransmission probability at the Mobile Terminals (MTs) may increase significantly when the number of served MTs constantly increases. As these probabilities are increasead, energy efficiency in WLANs is decreased. In order to reduce the retransmission attempts, the proposed scheme allocates the maximum backoff count to an MT which is using NRT traffic. Thus, we propose a new energy consumption metric for retransmission while comparing it to the Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) by numerical analysis in a saturated network situation.