IEEE 802.11n MAC frame aggregation mechanisms for next-generation high-throughput WLANs

Author

Skordoulis, Dionysios ; Ni, Qiang ; Chen, Hsiao-Hwa ; Stephens, Adrian P. ; Liu, Changwen ; Jamalipour, Abbas

Author_Institution

Brunel Univ., London

Volume

15

Issue

1

fYear

2008

fDate

2/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

40

Lastpage

47

Abstract

IEEE 802.11n is an ongoing next-generation wireless LAN standard that supports a very highspeed connection with more than 100 Mb/s data throughput measured at the medium access control layer. This article investigates the key MAC enhancements that help 802.11n achieve high throughput and high efficiency. A detailed description is given for various frame aggregation mechanisms proposed in the latest 802.11n draft standard. Our simulation results confirm that A-MSDU, A-MPDU, and a combination of these methods improve extensively the channel efficiency and data throughput. We analyze the performance of each frame aggregation scheme in distinct scenarios, and we conclude that overall, the two-level aggregation is the most efficacious.

Keywords

authorisation; wireless LAN; IEEE 802.11n MAC frame aggregation mechanism; channel efficiency; data throughput; medium access control layer; next-generation high-throughput WLAN; Bandwidth; Communication standards; Cryptography; Data communication; Frequency; Physical layer; Quality of service; Throughput; Traffic control; Wireless LAN;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Wireless Communications, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1536-1284

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MWC.2008.4454703

Filename

4454703