Performance Evaluation of a Unified IEEE 802.11 DCF Model in NS-3

The IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) is a basic component in the medium access control (MAC) protocol of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANS). Recently, a unified analytical framework has been proposed [1] to capture the fundamental features of IEEE 802.11 DCF networks, which provides various accurate performance predication in NS-2 simulations. In the past a few years, NS-3 is widely considered an emerging and promising network simulator for researchers and engineers to validate their analytical models based on simulation experiments. Similar to NS-2, NS-3 provides a thorough 802.11 PHY and MAC protocol stack, the accuracy of which is, nevertheless, not yet been fully investigated. In this paper, we conduct a performance evaluation study of the unified IEEE 802.11 DCF analytical model in [1] with NS-3. Various network scenarios (distinct conditions, varying system parameters, different access modes and network topologies.) are conducted. The performance evaluation study shows that the theoretical predication closely matches with NS-3 simulation results. This case study implies that not only the theoretical model is a credible model for homogeneous IEEE 802.11 DCF networks but also NS-3 WiFi module can provide 802.11 network simulations as well as NS-2.