Performance Impact of CSMA/CA on the throughput of IEEE 802.11 Networks

A wireless LAN is a LAN that uses the air as a medium of transmission to permit data transmission among fixed, or moving computers. The MAC layer of 802.11 employs the carrier sense multiple access/collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) to provide reliable frame transmission. This paper presents the impact of CSMA/CA on the performance of IEEE 802.11 networks. We measure the IEEE 802.11 wireless network throughput from a number of hosts to the access point (AP). The paper shows the factors that lead the difference between theoretical and measured throughput.