Evaluation of spatial reuse in wireless multiple access networks

In wireless multi-hop networks, the spatial reuse determines the number of simultaneous connections allowed in a given region. It has a strong influence on the throughput and delay characteristics of the network and is thus an important metric in performance evaluation. This paper presents an analytic model for the spatial reuse in a wireless multi-hop network with a random access MAC protocol that uses a fair scheduler to accomplish collision avoidance. We employ a purely probabilistic model to derive the closed form solution for the achievable throughput. Using our model we are able to show the maximum saturation throughput obtainable as a function of the node density.