Exploiting the Capture Effect on DSC and BSS Color in Dense IEEE 802.11ax Deployments

Future wireless local area networks (WLANs) are expected to serve thousands of users in diverse environments. To address the new challenges that WLANs will face, and to overcome the limitations that previous IEEE standards introduced, a new IEEE 802.11 amendment is under development. IEEE 802.11ax aims to enhance spectrum efficiency in a dense deployment; hence system throughput improves. Dynamic Sensitivity Control (DSC) and BSS Color are the main schemes under consideration in IEEE 802.11ax for improving spectrum efficiency In this paper, we evaluate DSC and BSS Color schemes when physical layer capture (PLC) is modelled. PLC refers to the case that a receiver successfully decodes the stronger frame when collision occurs. It is shown, that PLC could potentially lead to fairness issues and higher throughput in specific cases. We study PLC in a small and large scale scenario, and show that PLC could also improve fairness in specific scenarios.