End-to-end batch transmission in a multihop and multirate wireless network: Latency, reliability, and throughput analysis

Abstract

This paper presents a novel Markov-based model for analyzing the end-to-end transmission of a batch of packets in a multihop wireless network using multirate transmission. The end-to-end reliability of this transmission (in terms of the number of packets delivered to the destination node) is controlled through different types of Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ)-based error control mechanisms implemented at each node. For a batch of packets, we derive complete statistics (i.e., probability mass function) for end-to-end latency and the number of packets successfully delivered to the destination node. Typical numerical results obtained from the model are validated by means of simulation. These results reveal the trade-off between end-to-end latency and end-to-end reliability, which would be an important issue in designing and engineering multihop wireless networks. Also, we demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed analytical model in predicting the latency and the reliability performances of TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) in a multihop wireless scenario.