  The IEEE 802.11 protocol is a popular standard for wireless local area
networks. Its medium access control layer (MAC) is a carrier sense multiple
access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) design and includes an exponential
backoff mechanism that makes it a possible target for probabilistic model
checking. In this work, we identify ways to increase the scope of application
of probabilistic model checking to the 802.11 MAC. Current techniques do not
scale to networks of even moderate size. To work around this problem, we
identify properties of the protocol that can be used to simplify the models and
make verification feasible. Using these observations, we directly optimize the
probabilistic timed automata models while preserving probabilistic reachability
measures. We substantiate our claims of significant reduction by our results
from using the probabilistic model checker PRISM.
