Collision Localization for IEEE 802.11 Wireless LANs

In this paper, we examine an algorithm for estimating the location of packet collisions, in the presence of bandlimited multipath channels. We propose an improvement to the collision localization algorithm to further enhance its performance to compensate for the increased impairments of the multipath channel. We then examine the collision localization algorithm in conjunction with two common wireless LAN standards, 802.11b and 802.11a/g. We show that for the 802.11b standard, the collision localization algorithm performs well, even in the presence of a multi-path channel. We also show that the 802.11 a/g standards are compatible with collision localization. However, we will see that the IFFT/FFT operations required to perform OFDM transmission limit the effectiveness of collision localization. We therefore also investigate collision localization in conjunction with block-based single carrier transmission, a comparable technology to OFDM, and offers some advantages when used with collision localization. In addition, we also investigate two applications of collision localization. First, we will show that collision localization in conjunction with Viterbi decoding with erasures can, in many cases, allow for corrupted packets to be completely recovered at the receiver. Second, we will also demonstrate that collision localization can be used to combat narrow-band interference, such as Bluetooth, in 802.11 a/g networks.