Performance analysis of CSMA/CA based MU-MIMO WLANs

In this paper, the performance of carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) based multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) uplink wireless local area networks (WLANs) is analysed. Analytical models are provided to compute the throughput of each user and the total energy consumption in a WLAN with a single user MIMO (SU-MIMO) technique as well as a MU-MIMO technique. By means of the analytical models, the throughput, fairness and energy consumption performances are studied for several WLAN scenarios. The numerical results show that the MU-MIMO technique provides higher throughput than the SU-MIMO technique only when the number of MIMO communication antennas is high and the medium access parameters of the users are configured properly. Further, the SU-MIMO technique is found to be more energy efficient than the MU-MIMO technique. However, the MU-MIMO technique provides better fairness over the SU-MIMO technique.