Throughput and Delay Analysis in Single Hop and Multihop IEEE 802.11 Networks

In this paper, we present a simple analytical model to provide estimates for throughput and end-to-end packet delay in single hop and multihop IEEE 802.11 networks. In contrast to most works in the literature that focus on analyzing MAC-layer throughput and head of line delay for single hop networks operating under saturation conditions, our model focuses on delivering accurate estimates for MAC-layer throughput and end-to-end delay for both single hop and multihop networks under all loading conditions. To calculate the throughput, we use a regenerative approach based on a CSMA approximation and to calculate the end-to-end delay, we use both a regenerative approach to calculate the packet service time (the Head-of-Line delay) and an M/G/l approximation to calculate the packet waiting time in the queue. When it comes to multihop networks, we calculate both the spatial re-use factor and the average path length of the network. This allows us to model the multihop network as a congregation of smaller, single hop networks, which we use in turn, to introduce an effective new method for the calculation of the overall network throughput and packet end-to-end delay.