The new IEEE 802.11ax standard is aimed to serve many users while enabling
every station to transmit a consistent stream of data without interruption. In
this paper we evaluate the upper bound on the throughput of a Downlink
IEEE 802.11ax channel using the Single User (SU) mode and using the Multi
User Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MU-MIMO) and Orthogonal Frequency
Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) mode. We compare between
IEEE 802.11ax and IEEE 802.11ac for the case of 1, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 stations
in different Modulation/Coding schemes (MCS) and different transmission
windows’ sizes, 64 and 256 frames in IEEE 802.11ax. IEEE 802.11ax outperforms
IEEE 802.11ac in the SU and MU modes by 52% and 74% in a reliable
channel respectively, while in an unreliable channel the improvements are by
59% and 103% respectively. Also, in terms of the access delay, the advantage
of IEEE 802.11ax increases as the number of stations increases.
References
[1]
IEEE Std. 802.11TM-2016 (2016) IEEE Standard for Information Technology—Telecommunications and Information Exchange between Systems-Local and Metropolitan Area Networks-Specific Requirements. Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications. IEEE, New York.
[2]
IEEE P802.11axTM/D1.4 (2017) IEEE Draft Standard for Information Technology—Telecommunications and Information Exchange between Systems-Local and Metropolitan Area Networks-Specific Requirements. Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specific Requirements. IEEE, New York.
[3]
IEEE Std. 802.11acTM-2013 (2013) IEEE Standard for Information Technology—Telecommunications and Information Exchange between Systems-Local and Metropolitan Area Networks-Specific Requirements. Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specific Requirements. Amendment 4: Enhancements for Very High Throughput for Operation in Bands below 6 GHz. IEEE, New York.
[4]
Perahia, E. and Stacey, R. (2013) Next Generation Wireless LANs: 802.11n and 802.11ac. 2nd Edition, Cambridge Press, Cambridge.
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139061407
[5]
Khorov, E., Kiryanov, A. and Lyakhov, A. (2015) IEEE 802.11ax: How to Build High Efficiency WLANs. International Conference on Engineering and Telecommunication, Moscow, 18-19 November 2015, 14-19.
[6]
Afaqui, M.S., Villegas, E.G. and Aguilera, E.L. (2016) IEEE 802.11ax: Challenges and Requirements for Future High Efficiency WIFI. IEEE Wireless Communications, 99, 2-9.
[7]
Deng, D.J., Chen, K.C. and Cheng, R.S. (2014) IEEE 802.11ax: Next Generation Wireless Local Area Networks. 10th International Conference on Heterogeneous Networking for Quality, Reliability, Security and Robustness, Rhodes, 18-20 August 2014, 77-82. https://doi.org/10.1109/QSHINE.2014.6928663
Karmakar, R., Chattopadhyay, S. and Chakraborty, S. (2017) Impact of IEEE 802.11n/ac PHY/MAC High Throughput Enhancement over Transport/Application Layer Protocols—A Survey. IEEE Communication Surveys and Tutorials, 19, 2050-2091.
[10]
Sharon, O. and Alpert, Y. (2017) Scheduling Strategies and Throughput Optimization for the Uplink for IEEE 802.11ax and IEEE 802.11ac Based Networks. Wireless Sensor Networks, 9, 250-273.
[11]
Lin, W., Li, B., Yang, M., Qn, Q., Yan, Z., Zuo, X. and Yang, B. (2016) Integrated Link-System Level Simulation Platform for the Next Generation WLAN—IEEE 802.11ax. Global Communications Conference, Washington DC, 4-8 December 2016.
[12]
Qu, Q., Li, B., Yang, M. and Yan, Z. (2015) An OFDMA Based Concurrent Multiuser MAC for Upcoming IEEE 802.11ax. Wireless Communications and Networking Conference Workshops, New Orleans, 9-12 March 2015, 136-141.
[13]
Lee, J., Deng, D.J. and Chen, K.C. (Unpublished) OFDMA-Based Hybrid Channel Access for IEEE 802.11ax WLAN.
[14]
Karaca, M., Bastani, S., Priyanto, B.E., Safavi, M. and Landfeldt, B. (2016) Resource Management for OFDMA Based Next Generation 802.11ax WLANs. 9th IFIP Wireless and Mobile Networking Conference, Colmar, 11-13 July 2016.
[15]
Jones, V. and Sampath, H. (2015) Emerging Technologies for WLAN. IEEE Communications Magazine, 5, 141-149. https://doi.org/10.1109/MCOM.2015.7060496
[16]
Sanabria-Russo, L., Faridi, A., Bellalta, B., Barcelo, J. and Oliver, M. (2013) Future Evolution of CSMA Protocols for the IEEE 802.11 Standard. IEEE International Conference on Communications, Budapest, 9-13 June 2013, 1274-1279.
[17]
Sanabria-Russo, L., Barcelo, J., Faridi, A. and Bellalta, B. (2014) WLANs Throughput Improvement with CSMA/ECA. Computer Communications Workshops, Toronto, 27 April-2 May 2014, 125-126.
[18]
He, Y., Yuan, R., Sun, J. and Gong, W. (2009) Semi-Random Backoff: Towards Resource Reservation for Channel Access in Wireless LANs. IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, 21, 204-217. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICNP.2009.5339700
[19]
Khorov, E., Loginov, V. and Lyakhov, A. (2016) Several EDCA Parameters Sets for Improving Channel Access in IEEE 802.11ax Networks. International Symposium on Wireless Communication Systems, Poznan, 20-23 September 2016, 419-423.
https://doi.org/10.1109/ISWCS.2016.7600940
[20]
Sharon, O. and Alpert, Y. (2014) MAC Level Throughput Comparison: 802.11ac vs. 802.11n. Physical Communication Journal, 12, 33-49.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phycom.2014.01.007
[21]
The Wi-Fi Alliance. http://www.wi-fi.org
[22]
Lemmon, J. (2002) Wireless Link Statistical bit Error Rate Model. Technical Report 02-934, U.S. Dept. of Commerce.
[23]
Ns3 Simulator. https://www.nsnam.org
[24]
Sharon, O. and Alpert, Y. (2017) Single User MAC Level Throughput Comparison: IEEE 802.11ax vs. IEEE 802.11ac. Wireless Sensor Networks, 9, 166-177.
https://doi.org/10.4236/wsn.2017.95009