Revisiting the hidden terminal problem in a CSMA/CA wireless network
Recently, research interest in the performance analysis of wireless networks was revived. An issue of utmost importance in this class of networks, classified as one of the severest reasons for the degradation of their performance, is the hidden terminal problem. In this paper, we argue that an accurate analysis of the effect of hidden nodes in the performance of a random access protocol is still an open issue. First, we thoroughly explain the reasons behind the limitations of previous modeling methods and show that their performance is reliable only for certain configurations. Second and most importantly, we propose a novel method of modeling time that uses a fixed-length channel slot as the unit of time and does not rely on renewal theory. With these features, the model is able to successfully take into account the desynchronization of nodes in a hidden terminal environment. Our analytical model is shown to have a very close match to simulation results for an IEEE 802.11 Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol and for all the system parameters considered, unlike conventional methods.
hidden terminal csma/ca desynchronization ieee 802.11 markov chain