Modeling and analyzing per-flow throughput in IEEE 802.11 multi-hop ad hoc networks

In this paper, we focus on the per-flow throughput analysis of IEEE 802.11 multi-hop ad hoc networks. The importance of an accurate saturation throughput model lies in establishing the theoretical foundation for effective protocol performance improvements. We argue that the challenge in modeling the per-flow throughput in IEEE 802.11 multi-hop ad hoc networks lies in the analysis of the freezing process and probability of collisions. We first classify collisions occurring in the whole transmission process into instantaneous collisions and persistent collisions. Then we present a four-dimensional Markov chain model based on the notion of the fixed length channel slot to model the Binary Exponential Backoff (BEB) algorithm performed by a tagged node. We further adopt a continuous time Markov model to analyze the freezing process. Through an iterative way, we derive the per-flow throughput of the network. Finally, we validate the accuracy of our model by comparing the analytical results with that obtained by simulations.