Providing multiple data rates in infrastructure wireless networks

In this paper, we will discuss how to provide multiple-data-rate transmissions in a contemporary IEEE 802.11 infrastructure wireless network. According to the characteristics of modulation schemes, the highest data rate between a pair of mobile stations will be inversely proportional with the transmission distance. Therefore, a moving mobile station is requested to dynamically adjust its modulation scheme to achieve maximal network throughput as well as to keep the connection alive. In this paper, we propose a hybrid handshake protocol with a simple broadcasting protocol to help mobile stations to obtain the necessary location information. The critical fairness problem of multi-rate wireless networks is also discussed and solved in this paper