Abstract: Performance of the MAC protocol for the IEEE 802.11 Wireless LANs is examined with respect to the "hidden terminal" problem. Only the ad hoc portion of the wireless network, with stations generating time - insensitive asynchronous data traffic, is considered. The simulation results have clearly shown that "hidden terminals" introduce significant impact on network performance, especially on maximum achievable throughput and delay at moderate loads. With Pareto distributed packet traffic, different level of source burstiness seems to have no considerable influence over the throughput and the delay because of the station queues acting as traffic equalizers.
Key words: Standard IEE 80211, MAC protocol, local area network, Pareto distribution, mobile communication, hidden terminal effect.