MAC-Layer Packet Loss Models for Wi-Fi Networks: A Survey

• Published in: IEEE access Vol. 7; pp. 180512 - 180531
• Main Authors: Silva, Carlos Alexandre Gouvea Da, Pedroso, Carlos Marcelo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 2019; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Attenuation; Electronic devices; Gilbert-Elliot model; IEEE 802.11 Standard; IP (Internet Protocol); Local area networks; Mathematical models; Multimedia; OFDM; Packet loss; packet loss model; packet loss rate; Parameters; Thermal noise; Vibration; Wi-Fi communication; Wireless communication; Wireless communications; Wireless fidelity; Wireless networks
• ISSN: 2169-3536; 2169-3536
• DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2958260

Technical reports indicate that wireless and mobile devices will account for 71% of all IP traffic by 2022, an increase of 19% over four years. This increase is related to advances in wireless data communication technologies. Wireless networks have become one of the most important ways to connect devices to the Internet, therein improving productivity and encouraging information sharing. IEEE 802.11, known as Wi-Fi, has become the main standard for wireless local area networks. The most important metrics for measuring the quality of Wi-Fi are delay, jitter, and packet loss. Packet loss occurs when one or more packets fail to reach their destination and can occur for a variety of reasons. Packet loss influences the user's perceived quality of applications over Wi-Fi networks, mainly multimedia and real-time applications. The availability of accurate models for packet loss in Wi-Fi networks enables the development of more efficient methods for performance analysis and network design, as well as better computational simulations. Modeling packet loss in such networks presents a major challenge because packets may be lost for many different reasons, including signal attenuation, noise, multipathing, signal refraction, thermal noise, competition for media access and buffer issues. In this paper, we provide an overview of the causes of packet loss and a comprehensive survey of the available models for packet loss in Wi-Fi networks. The potential benefits of the survey are: (i) the systematic presentation of available packet loss models for Wi-Fi networks, their parameters, and respective packet loss rate evaluation, (ii) comparison of models considering validation scenarios and input parameters, and (iii) description of open issues and future research directions. We hope that our analysis will help researchers understand the most important characteristics of the packet loss process in Wi-Fi networks and the strengths and weaknesses of the main packet loss models.