Performance modeling of the IrDA protocol for infrared wireless communications

This article presents a performance analysis of the IrDA protocol used for short-range IR data communication using an analytical mathematical model. The IrDA protocol specifies a protocol stack for reliable short-range infrared wireless data communication between devices with the data link layer (IrLAP) being an HDLC derivative. The mathematical model is based on unidirectional data transfer and uses the concept of the virtual transmission time, which provides the average end-to-end transmission time of a packet, incorporating the time for retransmissions if packet errors occur or other enforced delays. Analytical results are produced for throughput against packet size, BER and minimum turnaround time. They indicate certain limitations of the protocol for efficient throughput at high data speeds, and indicate that the maximum frame size and window size should be increased and the minimum turnaround time minimized for improved results.