Evaluation of packet latency and fluctuation during UDP packet exchange in ad hoc wireless groups

We study latency fluctuation during UDP packet exchange in ad hoc wireless groups. We focus on wireless media access using carrier sensing multiple access with collision avoidance, specifically the 802.11 protocol. We show that there can be large intermittent fluctuations in transmission times when packet exchange is done using UDP unicast. We show how the conditions for the onset of large fluctuations can be estimated, and how these estimates can be used in the design of applications which require real-time data exchanges with low latency.