Performance analysis of wireless MAC protocols with Rayleigh fading, log-normal shadowing and capture effects

Abstract

The channel throughput and packet delay of wireless medium access control (MAC) protocols with Rayleigh fading, shadowing and capture effect are analyzed. We consider CSMA/CA protocols as the wireless MAC protocols, since CSMA/CA protocols are based on the standard for wireless Local Area Networks (LANs) IEEE 802.11. We analyze the channel throughput and packet delay for three types of CSMA/CA protocols; Basic CSMA/CA, Stop-and-Wait CSMA/CA and 4-Way Handshake CSMA/CA. We calculate the capture probability of an Access Point (AP) in a channel with Rayleigh fading, shadowing, and near-far effects, and we derive the throughput and packet delay for the various protocols. We have found that the performance of CSMA/CA in a radio channel model is 50 percent less than in an error Free channel model in low traffic load, while the throughput and packet delay of CSMA/CA in a radio channel model show better performance than in an error Free channel model in high traffic load. We also found that the 4-Way Handshake CSMA/CA protocol is superior to the other CSMA/CA protocols in high traffic load.