Abstract

We extend two approaches for estimating the proportions of frame losses at an 802.11 station due to collisions and other errors, in order to distinguish errors due to channel noise and hidden nodes. Our methods use local 802.11 measurements available in basic access mode and are based on MAC and PHY level measurements. We implement the estimators on experimental testbeds using off-the-shelf hardware to evaluate them in real wireless environments. We show that the estimators are effective and provide practical insight into the radio environment.