In a Multi-hop Wireless Networks (MHWN), packets are routed between source
and destination using a chain of intermediate nodes; chains are a fundamental
communication structure in MHWNs whose behavior must be understood to enable
building effective protocols. The behavior of chains is determined by a number
of complex and interdependent processes that arise as the sources of different
chain hops compete to transmit their packets on the shared medium. In this
paper, we show that MAC level interactions play the primary role in determining
the behavior of chains. We evaluate the types of chains that occur based on the
MAC interactions between different links using realistic propagation and packet
forwarding models. We discover that the presence of destructive interactions,
due to different forms of hidden terminals, does not impact the throughput of
an isolated chain significantly. However, due to the increased number of
retransmissions required, the amount of bandwidth consumed is significantly
higher in chains exhibiting destructive interactions, substantially influencing
the overall network performance. These results are validated by testbed
experiments. We finally study how different types of chains interfere with each
other and discover that well behaved chains in terms of self-interference are
more resilient to interference from other chains
