Modeling the 802.11e Enhanced Distributed Channel Access Function

The Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) function of IEEE 802.11e standard defines multiple Access Categories (AC) with AC-specific Contention Window (CW) sizes, Arbitration Interframe Space (AIFS) values, and Transmit Opportunity (TXOP) limits to support MAC-level Quality-of- Service (QoS). In this paper, we propose an analytical model for the EDCA function which incorporates an accurate CW, AIFS, and TXOP differentiation at any traffic load. The proposed model is also shown to capture the effect of MAC layer buffer size on the performance. Analytical and simulation results are compared to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed approach for varying traffic loads, EDCA parameters, and MAC layer buffer space.