4th International ICST Workshop On Wireless Network Measurement

Research Article

Effect of 802.11 Adaptive Exponential Backoffs on the Fluidity of Downlink Flows in Mesh Networks

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  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.4108/ICST.WIOPT2008.3164,
        author={Adel Aziz and Roger Karrer and Patrick Thiran},
        title={Effect of 802.11 Adaptive Exponential Backoffs on the Fluidity of Downlink Flows in Mesh Networks},
        proceedings={4th International ICST Workshop On Wireless Network Measurement},
        publisher={IEEE},
        proceedings_a={WINMEE},
        year={2008},
        month={8},
        keywords={Downlink Mesh networks Network topology Spread spectrum communication Telecommunication traffic Testing Throughput Traffic control Wireless application protocol Wireless mesh networks},
        doi={10.4108/ICST.WIOPT2008.3164}
    }
    
  • Adel Aziz
    Roger Karrer
    Patrick Thiran
    Year: 2008
    Effect of 802.11 Adaptive Exponential Backoffs on the Fluidity of Downlink Flows in Mesh Networks
    WINMEE
    IEEE
    DOI: 10.4108/ICST.WIOPT2008.3164
Adel Aziz1,*, Roger Karrer2,*, Patrick Thiran1,*
  • 1: EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland.
  • 2: Deutsche Telekom Laboratories, Berlin,Germany.
*Contact email: adel.aziz@epfl.ch, Roger.Karrer@telekom.de, patrick.thiran@epfl.ch

Abstract

Efficient multi-hop traffic management is a need for successful Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) deployment. Using an analogy with fluid mechanism, we classify a flow as laminar if the packets flow smoothly from the Wired Access Point (WAP) over the mesh network, and as turbulent otherwise. We identify a particular but frequent collision scenario, which sets the flow to be turbulent, resulting in a strongly reduced downlink end-to-end throughput. We show that the exponential backoff mechanism in an 802.11 WMN is responsible for this problem and suggest a modification of the current exponential backoff policy of 802.11 for WMNs. We support these findings both with simulations and real measurements on a testbed infrastructure.