Zone division model for capacity analysis in multi-hop data acquisition systems with hidden nodes

Data acquisition systems play an important role in several industries. Because highly scalable ad-hoc networks with multi-hop transmissions can be easily constructed at low cost, such networks are considered suitable for data acquisition systems. However, a lack of centralized control makes it difficult to respond to congestion when system capacity is exceeded. Therefore, the estimation of system capacity is a critical issue for system design. In this paper, we propose a novel zone division model to analyze the capacity of multi-hop data acquisition systems using Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) protocols. We divide the one-hop area to a gateway (GW) into two zones: (1) an outer zone where an access node (AN) can relay packets from multi-hop ANs; and (2) an inner zone where ANs cannot relay packets. Using this approach, we calculate packet loss for each zone, considering the difference in the communication range of the GW and ANs, as well as the collision with hidden nodes. Simulation results show that our model achieves higher estimation accuracy than conventional methods, indicating that we have successfully modeled phenomena of the real system more accurately.