Modelling and Empirical Analysis of IEEE 802.11b Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) in a Multi-Rate Wireless LAN

This paper presents an 802.11b Distributed Coordinated Function (DCF) approach that specifically concentrates on the multi-rate WLAN. In this approach, the authors assume a saturated condition where every node in the network have a packet to transmit at any time and also a clear channel condition in which there is no hidden terminal in the network. This saturation throughput and delay are used to analyze the DCF. This paper shows that in a slowly changing channel a smaller Sm and larger Fm for the ARF protocols needs to be set and used for better network performance.