Wireless objects equipped with multiple antennas are able to simultaneously transmit or receive multiple packets by exploiting the channel's spatial dimensions. In this paper, we study the benefits of such Multiple Packet Transmission/Reception (MPTR) approach, when it is used in combination with a CSMA/CA MAC protocol for fully interconnected networks, addressing the interactions between the two mechanisms and showing the performance gains that can be achieved. To this end, a new MAC protocol, called MACMA (MAC protocol for Multiple Antenna wireless objects), is introduced and formulated as a very basic MAC protocol that captures the fundamental properties of a CSMA/CA channel access protocol supporting MPTR. Using the MACMA protocol as a reference, a new mathematical model for CSMA/CA MAC protocols supporting MPTR is presented for the case of non-saturated traffic sources with finite buffer space. Simulation results show that the analytical model is able to accurately characterize MACMA's steady-state behavior for different number of antennas and different traffic loads, providing a useful tool to understand the performance gains that the proposed scheme can achieve.
['Boris Bellalta', 'Azadeh Faridi', 'Dirk Staehle', 'Jaume Barcelo', 'Alexey V. Vinel', 'Miquel Oliver']
Modeling a CSMA/CA MAC Protocol with Multi-packet Transmission/Reception in Non-saturated Conditions