Effectiveness of RTS/CTS Handshake in IEEE 802.11a Wireless LANs

Introduction: IEEE 802.11 Distributed Co-ordination Function (DCF) employs two techniques for packet transmission: the basic access and the RTS=CTS scheme [1]. The optional four-way handshaking RTS=CTS scheme involves the transmission of short requestto -send (RTS) and clear-to-send (CTS) control packets prior to the data packet transmission in order to shorten the collision duration. Although the RTS=CTS scheme is also employed to improve performance in the presence of hidden stations, the authors in [2] have reported several potential problems in the ability of the RTS=CTS scheme to address the hidden station problem and reduce interference. Bianchi in [3] developed a mathematical model for 802.11 DCF when no hidden stations are present and showed that RTS=CTS is effective in reducing collision duration for the 1 Mbit=s data rate. However, in [3] the difference between control rate and data rate has not been investigated and therefore the conclusions on the RTS=CTS effectiveness sh