Comparative Performance Analysis Between IEEE 802.11 Dcf and Proposed Coopmac+

Abstract

Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol is used to ensure that signals from different stations across the same channel collide. In this paper, a novel idea of user cooperation in wireless networks has been exploited to improve the performance of the IEEE 802.11 medium access control (MAC) protocol. The new MAC protocol leverages the multi-rate capability of IEEE 802.11b and allows the mobile stations (STA) far away from the access point (AP) to transmit at a higher rate by using an intermediate station as a relay. CoopMAC protocol is able to increase the throughput of the whole network and reduce the average packet delay. Moreover, CoopMAC also maintains backward compatibility with the legacy 802.11 protocol. The performance improvement is further evaluated by analysis and extensive simulations.