Achieving optimum network throughput and service differentiation for IEEE 802.11e EDCA networks

A key open question in IEEE 802.11e networks with enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) is how to properly tune the backoff parameters to optimize the network throughput performance under a certain differentiation requirement. To tackle this problem, a new analytical model for IEEE 802.11e EDCA networks is proposed in this paper, based on which the maximum network throughput is derived as an explicit function of the holding times of head-of-line (HOL) packets in successful transmission and collision states. The optimal initial backoff window sizes to achieve the maximum network throughput under pre-specified target node-throughput ratios are also obtained, and verified by simulation results.