Abstract:
Systems methods and apparatus provide a temporal analysis framework that models how the IEEE 802.11 MAC mechanism wins transmission opportunities when nodes communicate data over a plurality of communication channels. At each node, data packets transmitted by adjacent remote nodes are captured for a predetermined time interval. The capacity utilization of each adjacent node may be calculated from captured packets as the ratio of a network bandwidth used by a node for transmitting its data load and a network bandwidth available under the load conditions. Capacity utilization may be compared against a threshold parameter for determining a saturated condition. Each node communicates data representative of the saturation determination in beacon frames to one or more of the adjacent nodes, which may take preventive actions to avoid deterioration of data communications. Each network node passively monitors the performance of adjacent or “neighboring” nodes in order to detect if saturation is occurring.