Modelling, simulation and performance evaluation of the IEEE 802.11e protocol with station mobility

In this article, we present a parameterized Colored Petri Net (CPN) model of the IEEE 802.11e protocol for wireless communications with mobile stations. CPNs provide a graphical model for the modeling and analysis of concurrent systems, which can be parameterized by the use of constants, and thus they allow us to create more flexible models. Our CPN model captures the protocol’s behavior, and the specific parameters used for the 802.11e protocol and the scenarios to be evaluated are captured by the CPN parameters. The model presented is flexible enough to cover full customization of traffic types, user mobility and collision avoidance protocols. In this model, there is an access point (AP) which is visible to all the stations, and we assume that due to physical restrictions, there are two range groups. All the stations in the same range group are visible to each other. The impact of mobility is then analyzed by studying a situation in which the stations move in a controlled way to the same range group. The simulation results demonstrate the impact on network performance for sensitive and insensitive traffic types, as well as the role of the RTS/CTS protocol in collision avoidance, especially when users are located in different regions. Specifically, we show how the performance improves in the different scenarios when the stations move to the same area, where they can see each other, and we also study the impact on the performance for each type of traffic.