Reference-based fair MAC algorithm in Wi-Fi WLANs with capture effect

The widespread deployment of infrastructure WLANs has made Wi-Fi an integral part of today’s Internet access technology. Due to the inherent characteristics of the wireless medium in WLAN systems, the capture effect significantly affects the system performance; a receiver can successfully decode a collided frame given that its signal-to-interference and noise ratio is sufficiently high enough, but results in an unfair channel access share among the wireless nodes. In this article, we propose fair capture effect aware MAC (FC-MAC) algorithm, which achieves channel access fairness using a feedback control mechanism. We determine the average waiting time as a common control reference, which provides fair channel access even when the capture effect is present. In result, the algorithm enables each node to converge to a fair channel access share. Among multiple points that yields fair channel access, we determine the optimal target reference that maximizes the aggregate throughput. Through both dynamic system modeling and extensive simulation studies, we show that the FC-MAC algorithm is stable and achieves fairness while improving the aggregate throughput.