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Main Authors: Politis, Anastasios C., Hilas, Constantinos S., Anastassiu, Hristos T.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.23276
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author Politis, Anastasios C.
Hilas, Constantinos S.
Anastassiu, Hristos T.
author_facet Politis, Anastasios C.
Hilas, Constantinos S.
Anastassiu, Hristos T.
contents Full Duplex (FD) technology is considered as one of the next big leap in the evolution of modern WLANs. Allowing a node to simultaneously transmit a data frame while in receive mode, can theoretically double the system throughput. However, several requirements must be fulfilled in order for FD operation to manifest. One obvious prerequisite is that the Medium Access Control (MAC) mechanism must allow two nodes to access the shared medium simultaneously. In modern WLANs the standard MAC layer mechanism is the Distributed Coordination Function (DCF), which is specifically designed to avoid such situations. FD communications may also take place when the physical placement of the communicating parts involves the existence of hidden terminals which, in standard Half Duplex (HD) communications, imposes a significant problem. This paper investigates the performance of the Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) protocol, which constitutes the basis of the DCF mechanism, in FD WLANs with hidden terminals, and compares it with the standard HD case. Our analysis is based on performance modelling. Results indicate that, under the DCF regime, FD technology exhibits an exiguous performance improvement, in terms of saturation throughput, when compared with its half duplex counterpart.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_23276
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On the Performance of DCF in Full Duplex WLANs with Hidden Terminals
Politis, Anastasios C.
Hilas, Constantinos S.
Anastassiu, Hristos T.
Networking and Internet Architecture
Full Duplex (FD) technology is considered as one of the next big leap in the evolution of modern WLANs. Allowing a node to simultaneously transmit a data frame while in receive mode, can theoretically double the system throughput. However, several requirements must be fulfilled in order for FD operation to manifest. One obvious prerequisite is that the Medium Access Control (MAC) mechanism must allow two nodes to access the shared medium simultaneously. In modern WLANs the standard MAC layer mechanism is the Distributed Coordination Function (DCF), which is specifically designed to avoid such situations. FD communications may also take place when the physical placement of the communicating parts involves the existence of hidden terminals which, in standard Half Duplex (HD) communications, imposes a significant problem. This paper investigates the performance of the Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) protocol, which constitutes the basis of the DCF mechanism, in FD WLANs with hidden terminals, and compares it with the standard HD case. Our analysis is based on performance modelling. Results indicate that, under the DCF regime, FD technology exhibits an exiguous performance improvement, in terms of saturation throughput, when compared with its half duplex counterpart.
title On the Performance of DCF in Full Duplex WLANs with Hidden Terminals
topic Networking and Internet Architecture
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.23276