A backoff algorithm based on self-adaptive contention window update factor for IEEE 802.11 DCF

The binary exponential backoff (BEB) mechanism is applied to the packet retransmission in lots of wireless network protocols including IEEE 802.11 and 802.15.4. In distributed dynamic network environments, the fixed contention window (CW) updating factor of BEB mechanism can’t adapt to the variety of network size properly, resulting in serious collisions. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a backoff algorithm based on self-adaptive contention window update factor for IEEE 802.11 DCF. In WLANs, this proposed backoff algorithm can greatly enhance the throughput by setting the optimal CW updating factor according to the theoretical analysis. When the number of active nodes varies, an intelligent scheme can adaptively adjust the CW updating factor to achieve the maximal throughput during run time. As a result, it effectively reduces the number of collisions, improves the channel utilization and retains the advantages of the binary exponential back-off algorithm, such as simplicity and zero cost. In IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function (DCF) protocol, the numerical analysis of physical layer parameters show that the new backoff algorithm performance is much better than BEB, MIMD and MMS algorithm.