Patent ID: 8295179

Claim:
A method for measuring a quality of networking nodes, wherein a node (N) transmits and receives data packets of a packet length (L) using a distributed medium access protocol relying on detecting transmissions from other nodes by carrier sensing, the node (N) is at one of three possible states: an idle state (T idle ), an active state(T active )and a stall state(T expected — stall ), the method comprising the steps of: (a) setting a controlled environment where at least two independent multicast packet flows, a first flow (fl) and a second flow (f 2 ), are generated using identical modulation rate and the packet length (L), and where the node (N) receives the first flow (f 1 ) and sends the second flow (f 2 ) at a packet rate; (b) determining, in the controlled environment, values of a mean time that the node (N) remains in the idle state (T idle ), a mean time that the node (N) remains in the active state (T active ) and a mean time that the node (N) is expected to remain in the stall state (T expected — stall ); (c) increasing periodically the packet rate until the controlled environment reaches a saturation point; (d) measuring the data packets sent by the node (N) at the saturation point in the controlled environment resulting a data rate (dr); (e) measuring a maximum data rate (β) sent and received concurrently by the node (N) at the saturation point in the controlled environment; and (f) measuring a carrier sensing accuracy (α) of the node (N) for the modulation rate and the packet length (L).