A Novel Theoretical Throughput Estimation Method for IEEE 802.11 WLANs

In this paper, we develop a theoretical throughput estimation method for IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), which accurately estimates how much throughput each node would achieve in a WLAN where nodes have different characteristics in terms of traffic demands, transmission rates, and packet sizes. The developed method is applicable to various types of topologies of WLANs including hidden node topologies. To analyze the effect of all the different characteristics of nodes, we newly introduce a novel concept, called activity probability, which represents the probability of packet existence in a node's transmission queue at a certain time. To validate the accuracy of the developed estimation method, we conduct extensive packet-level simulations (NS-3) and confirm that the developed method accurately estimates the throughput performance of a WLAN.