AirLive WLA-9000AP - Manual (Page 61)

4. Web Management: Wireless and WAN Settings
AirLive WLA-9000AP User’s Manual 54
Contention Window increases exponentially up to a specified limit Maximum
Contention Window.
The random delay avoids most of the collisions that would occur if multiple APs got
access to the medium at the same time and tried to transmit data simultaneously. The
more active users you have on a network, the more significant the performance gains
of the backoff timer will be in reducing the number of collisions and retransmissions.
The random backoff used by the access point is a configurable parameter. To describe
the random delay, a "Minimum Contention Window" (ECWMin) and a "Maximum
Contention Window" (ECWMax) is defined.
‰ ECWmin: The value specified for the Minimum Contention Window is the
upper limit of a range for the initial random backoff wait time. The number used
in the random backoff is initially a random number between 0 and the number
defined for the Minimum Contention Window.
‰ ECWmax: If the first random backoff time ends before successful
transmission of the data frame, the access point increases a retry counter, and
doubles the value of the random backoff window. The value specified in the
Maximum Contention Window is the upper limit for this doubling of the random
backoff. This doubling continues until either the data frame is sent or the
Maximum Contention Window size is reached.