Throughput of a wireless LAN access point in presence of natural hidden terminals and capture effects

Abstract

In a wireless LAN, even if the coverage of the access point (AP) and the mobile terminals are the same, the hidden terminal problem cannot be avoided. If the AP and all the mobile terminals have the same coverage with a radius R there will always be terminals in the coverage area of the AP which are hidden to one another. This paper introduces this phenomenon, that we refer to as the natural hidden terminal problem, and analyzes the throughput of the AP under these circumstances with various conditions. The analysis includes the effects of the difference in the coverage of the AP and the mobile terminals as well as the capture effect caused by the near-far problem. The case of a CSMA protocol is discussed in particular.