Dynamic Adaption of DCF and PCF mode of IEEE 802.11 WLAN
Abhishek Goliya · 2003
IEEE 802.11 specifies the most famous family of WLANs. It features two basic mode of operation: Distributed Coordinating Function (DCF) and Point Coordinating Function (PCF). Both PCF and DCF mode of IEEE 802.11 do not perform equally well under all tra#c scenarios. Their behavior varies depending upon current network size and tra#c load. It is useful to use the DCF mode for low tra#c and small network size, and the PCF mode for high tra#c loads and to reduce contention in large size network. In this thesis, we have designed three protocols to dynamically adapt IEEE 802.11 MAC under varying load. One of them is designed to dynamically switch between either modes. Our Dynamic Switching Protocol (DSP) observes network tra#c to decide switching point and switches dynamically to suit current tra#c load and network size.