A TCP Throughput Model for IEEE 802.11 Linear Multi-hop Networks

Nowadays, IEEE 802.11 has become the most widely used standard for the wireless local area network (WLAN), and transport control protocol (TCP) is a dominant communication protocol in networks. Besides, the linear multi-hop networks are applied in various scenarios to overcome the limitations of communication range. This paper proposed a novel TCP throughput model for IEEE 802.11 linear multi-hop networks by analyzing distributed coordination function (DCF) and frame transmit queues. It is evaluated the effects of minimum contention window sizes on the throughput by mathematical analysis, and the optimal parameters for the best throughput performance are obtained. The validity of the model is verified through the simulation results.