Performance analysis of Medium Access Control protocol for IEEE 802.11g-over-fiber networks

Abstract

This paper investigates the Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol performance in the IEEE 802.11g-over-fiber network for different payloads and fiber lengths using Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum-Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (DSSS-OFDM) and Extended Rate Physicals-Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (ERP-OFDM) physical layers using basic access mode, Request to Send/Clear to Send (RTS/CTS) and CTS-to-self mechanisms. The results show that IEEE 802.11g-over-fiber network employing the ERP-OFDM physical layer is much more efficient than that employing the DSSS-OFDM physical layer, with regards to both throughput and delay. For a given maximum throughput/minimum delay, the tradeoff among the access mechanism, the fiber length, and the payload size must be considered. Our quantified results give a selection basis for the operators to quickly select suitable IEEE 802.11g physical layers and the different access mechanisms, and accurately predict the data throughput and delay given the specific parameters.