International Journal of Computer Theory and Engineering

Abstract

In an infrastructure based wireless network, access point (AP) is the central authority which controls all the registered nodes and relaying traffic in the network. Even though all traffic is routed through AP, the open nature of the underlying medium is prone to environmental factors, etc. which degrade the performance of the overall network. However, in a saturated case the AP becomes the bone of contention among nodes which can result in collisions, packet drops, etc. In this study, authors analyze the performance of 802.11 WLANs that utilizes the Distributed Coordination Function (DCF). A simulation study having contending stations within the transmission range of an AP in a saturated environment are considered, in view of varying data rates and packet sizes in an error free environment. Simulation results are presented and analyzed in the end.