Analytical analysis of applying packet fragmentation mechanism on IEEE 802.11b DCF network in non ideal channel with infinite load conditions

The analytical modeling and performance analysis of the 802.11 network in all its various extensions (802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g, 802.11e, 802.11n, etc.) have already been widely explored over the past years. However, the packet fragmentation mechanism (PFM), which is proposed by the IEEE work group to reduce the impact of bit error rate (BER) on the packet error rate (PER), has not been considered in the analytical models proposed in the literature. Yet, the PFM constitutes a key parameter to achieve the best performances of 802.11 networks. In this paper, we extend the Bianchi’s Markov chain model with the PFM and the PER. Then, we analyze the performance improvement level achieved with the PFM in an IEEE 802.11 network under the impact of BER and packet length. The proposed analysis has been applied on the basic access method of 802.11b network in saturated traffic conditions. So, we have analyzed the throughput and the mean response time of the 802.11 network. The obtained theoretical results are validated by simulation.