Local Estimation of Probabilities of Direct and Staggered Collisions in 802.11 WLANs

—Current 802.11 networks do not typically achieve the maximum potential throughput despite link adaptation and crosslayer optimization techniques designed to alleviate many causes of packet loss. A primary contributing factor is the difficulty in distinguishing between various causes of packet loss, including collisions caused by high network use, co-channel interference from neighboring networks, and errors due to poor channel conditions. In this paper, we propose a novel method for estimating various collision type probabilities locally at a given node of an 802.11 network. Our approach is based on combining locally observable quantities with information observed and broadcast by the access point (AP) in order to obtain partial spatial information about the network traffic. We provide a systematic assessment and definition of the different types of collision, and show how to approximate each of them using only local and AP information. Additionally, we show how to approximate th...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: GLOBECOM
• Authors: Michael N. Krishnan, Sofie Pollin, Avideh Zakhor
• Keywords: Collision Type Probabilities, Collision Types, GLOBECOM 2009, Packet Loss, Telecommunications