Performance evaluation of integrated video and data transmission with the IEEE 802.11 standard MAC protocol

This paper studies the performance of the IEEE 802.11 standard MAC protocol for integrated H.263 video and data transmission in a single BSA (basic service area) of an infrastructure network. Data traffic is transmitted with the DCF (distributed coordination function), while video transmission is carried out with the PCF (point coordination function). By simulation, we evaluate the throughput and average MPDU (MAC protocol data unit) delay for various values of the CFP (contention free period) repetition interval and the CFP maximum duration. Numerical results show that if the CFP repetition interval is set too long, video-delay performance deteriorates drastically. We also study how channel transmission errors affect the performance of the protocol.