On the Stable Throughput in Wireless LANs

The throughput stability is concerned with how much traffic load can be sustained in a network, and has been a research hotspot. Recent studies on the stability in 802.11 networks have arrived at contradictory conclusions. This paper delves into the reasons behind these contradictions. Our study manifests that the maximum stable-throughput is not simply larger than, less than, or equal to the saturation throughput as argued in previous works. Instead, there exists two intervals, over which the maximum stable-throughput follows different rules: over one interval, it may be far larger than the saturated throughput; over the other, it is tightly bounded by the saturated throughput. Most existing related research fails to differentiate the two intervals, implying that the derived results are inaccurate or hold true partially. Finally, we verify our study results via extensive simulations.