Distributed adaptive backoff reservation (DABR) for IEEE 802.11 wireless networks

Randomness in backoff selection and bounded window size of IEEE 802.11 DCF standard hinder adaptive and collision-free operation of the standard. Reservation and network load estimation schemes proposed in the literature address such issues. This paper proposes a novel network load estimation technique and generalizes a distributed deterministic backoff reservation scheme for arbitrary number of users in IEEE 802.11 networks. The proposed protocol guarantees fair channel access of stations in a round robin fashion irrespective of the number of users in a single hop environment. Backoff assignment uniqueness is proven mathematically, and analytical performance evaluation coupled with extensive simulations verify significant throughput performance enhancement. Protocol effectiveness toward accurately estimating the number of active stations is also investigated through simulation.