Error Bound of Collision Probability Estimation in Non-saturated IEEE 802.11 WLANs

We analytically prove that the error in the channel idle time-based collision probability estimation in face of non-saturated stations is bounded by 2/(CWmin+1) in the IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs (WLANs). This work explicitly quantifies the impact of non-saturation, and the result vindicates the use of the estimation technique in real-life IEEE 802.11 WLANs, in such applications as the acknowledgement-based link adaptation and the throughput optimization through contention window size adaptation. key words: IEEE 802.11, collision probability, non-saturated model, contention window, clear channel assessment