Throughput Analysis of a Path in an IEEE 802.11 Multihop Wireless Network

In this paper, we present a methodology to analytically compute the end-to-end throughput that can be achieved on a path between two nodes in an IEEE 802.11 multihop wireless network with homogenous data transmission rates. Knowledge of achievable end-to-end throughput is important for making routing decisions and performing admission control. Unlike a wired network where the throughput of a path after accounting for overheads is roughly equal to the lowest bandwidth along the path, the throughput of a wireless multihop path is much lower than the minimum data rate along the path because of sharing of the medium by nodes within carrier sensing range of each other. Our analysis of the achievable throughput takes into account this effect of sharing of the medium in the form of blocking and interference. We apply our analysis to several randomly generated paths, and compare the analytical results with those from simulations to validate the analysis.