2012 Volume 3 Issue 2 Pages 200-214
In IEEE 802.11 wireless multi-hop networks, each node works individually and their individual operations generate entire network dynamics. It is important to clarify the network dynamics in wireless multi-hop networks for designing and constructing multi-hop communication networks. This paper presents the network-dynamics investigations for three-hop string-topology wireless network in detail. From the investigations, a “backoff-stage synchronization” phenomenon, which is mutuality between hidden nodes, is found. The mechanism of the backoff-stage synchronization is expressed and the sufficient conditions for the synchronization occurrence are given. This phenomenon gives some impacts on the IEEE 802.11 multi-hop-network communications.