Contention Based Access Misbehavior in WLAN Networks

The focus of this thesis lies in investigating possible abuse of the standardized medium access protocol 802.11a within Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN). By modifying the Contention Window (CW), a network can capture more traffic in expense of its rivals. The competing network scenarios are modeled by the use of Game Theory, applying simple and repeated form games. We argue that by modifying the Contention Window, based on respective network parameters and by simple interaction between the contending networks, a superior performance than provided by the standard can be obtained. The network’s performance is measured in terms of the system capacity as well as system saturation throughput.