On use of traditional M/G/1 model for IEEE 802.11 DCF in unsaturated traffic conditions

For analysis of the IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function (DCF), one of the key assumptions commonly accepted is that every node always has at least one frame to transmit. In practice, however, this assumption may or may not be valid, particularly under unsaturated traffic conditions. In this paper, we assess the accuracy in using the traditional M/G/1 queueing model for the DCF as an alternative model at an individual node, and analyze its performance in unsaturated traffic conditions. Analytical and simulation results are compared to demonstrate a reasonable accuracy of the proposed approach for varying traffic loads at an individual node