A Generalized Markov Chain Model for IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function

To improve the accuracy and enhance the applicability of existing models, this paper proposes a generalized Markov chain model for IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) under the widely adopted assumption of ideal transmission channel. The IEEE 802.11 DCF is modeled by a two dimensional Markov chain, which takes into account unsaturated traffic, backoff freezing, retry limits, the difference between maximum retransmission count and maximum backoff exponent, and limited buffer size based on the M/G/1/K queuing model. We show that existing models can be treated as special cases of the proposed generalized model. Furthermore, simulation results validate the accuracy of the proposed model.