  The purpose of this paper is to analyze the so-called back-off technique of
the IEEE 802.11 protocol in broadcast mode with waiting queues. In contrast to
existing models, packets arriving when a station (or node) is in back-off state
are not discarded, but are stored in a buffer of infinite capacity. As in
previous studies, the key point of our analysis hinges on the assumption that
the time on the channel is viewed as a random succession of transmission slots
(whose duration corresponds to the length of a packet) and mini-slots during
which the back-o? of the station is decremented. These events occur
independently, with given probabilities. The state of a node is represented by
a two-dimensional Markov chain in discrete-time, formed by the back-off counter
and the number of packets at the station. Two models are proposed both of which
are shown to cope reasonably well with the physical principles of the protocol.
The stabillity (ergodicity) conditions are obtained and interpreted in terms of
maximum throughput. Several approximations related to these models are also
discussed.
