I-DTMC: An Integrated-Discrete Time Markov Chain Model for Performance Analysis in Future WLANs

Abstract

The IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol uses Distributed Coordinated Function (DCF) as the main element to determine the efficiency in sharing the limited resources of the wireless channels in wireless local area networks (WLANs). For analyzing 802.11 DCF networks, one of the key assumptions commonly used is that every station always has a packet to transmit (saturated state). However, in practice it may not be valid. In this paper, we assess the accuracy of the non-saturated traffic condition by integrating the traditional M/G/1 queueing model into Discrete Time Markov Chain (DTMC) model. The proposed I-DTMC enables us to analyze the performance of per-station in terms of average MAC system delay observed by each packet for successful transmission over the medium. The comparative results show enhanced performance evaluation of 802.11 DCF against other models.