Comprehensive analysis of the IEEE 802.11

Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) have attracted significant research interest over the past few years. The IEEE 802.11 standard is the most mature technology for WLANs and has been widely adopted for wireless networks. This paper outlines a new performance analysis for IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordinated Function (DCF) using Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) in terms of the channel throughput, packet processing rate, packet loss probability and average packet delay using a perfect channel as well as a slow Rayleigh fading channel. The theoretical results are subsequently compared with the simulation results. It is shown that there is a good match between these two results, which validates the analytical model.