A Study on New DCF Algorithm in IEEE 802.11 WLAN by Simulation

In this paper, MAC algorithm for the IEEE 802.11 DCF improving the performance is proposed and analyzed by simulation. The MAC of IEEE 802.11 WLAN to control data transmission uses two control methods called DCF(Distributed Coordination Function) and PCF(Point Coordination Function). The DCF controls the transmission based on CSMA/CA(Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance), that decides a random backoff time with the range of CW(Contention Window) for each station. Normally, each station increase the CW to double after collision, and reduces the CW to the minimum after successful transmission. The DCF shows excellent performance relatively in situation that competition station is less but has a problem that performance is fallen from throughput and delay viewpoint in situation that competition station is increased. This paper proposes an enhanced DCF algorithm that increases the CW to maximal CW after collision and decreases the CW smoothly after successful transmission in order to reduce the collision probability by utilizing the current status information of WLAN. To prove efficiency of proposed algorithm, a lots of simulations are conducted and analyzed.