The ham packet radio literature has the most readable descriptions. The professional RF networking write ups that I am aware of are pretty old because I have not followed networking much since grad school (back in the last millennium). Sorry about that.
Basically, you probably already know this, but for others reading along: The RF networking channel differs from a wired net in that not all stations can hear each other. So for stations of relatively equal performance, the stations on the edges do not hear each other and must relay through a station in the middle. It follows that those stations perceive channel busy/clear differently.
With a high level station, first off it hears many more stations so can not transmit into a clear channel as often. Then, when it does transmit, it has a large footprint and prevents channel re-use by several lower-level stations that would otherwise have different locally-clear channels.
Basically, you probably already know this, but for others reading along: The RF networking channel differs from a wired net in that not all stations can hear each other. So for stations of relatively equal performance, the stations on the edges do not hear each other and must relay through a station in the middle. It follows that those stations perceive channel busy/clear differently.
With a high level station, first off it hears many more stations so can not transmit into a clear channel as often. Then, when it does transmit, it has a large footprint and prevents channel re-use by several lower-level stations that would otherwise have different locally-clear channels.