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Figure 2-2: Hidden Station Example
To avoid a hidden station problem, move the clients or Access Point if possible so that the
devices can sense each other's transmissions. Otherwise, set Medium Reservation on the
clients with the problem to the Hidden Stations setting, which imposes an RTS/CTS
Threshold value of 500. You do not change the RTS Threshold on the Access Point.
Medium Reservation forces the client to send an RTS to the Access Point before
transmitting a packet that exceeds the threshold. The client waits until the Access Point
responds with a CTS message. However, Medium Reservation imposes additional network
overhead that could negatively affect the data throughput performance. You should only
use this setting when the density of clients and Access Points is low and you witness poor
network performance due to excessive frame collisions at the Access Points.
802.11 Power Management
Power management can extend the battery life of clients by allowing the client to sleep for
short periods of time while its messages are buffered by the Access Point.
You may need to balance wireless performance versus battery-life. Power management
imposes a more active use of the wireless medium, which might lead to more frequent
transmission delays experienced as slower network response times during file transfers.
With slower response times, the client may spend more time in operational mode resulting
in less effective power management. In such cases, disabling power management on the
client might result in better throughput performance.
Client A
Understanding Wireless Network Characteristics 2-9
802.11 Power Management
Client B
Client B
Client C
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