MIMO rate adaptation in 802.11n wireless networks

This paper studies MIMO based rate adaptation (RA) in 802.11n wireless networks. Our case study shows that existing RA algorithms offer much lower throughput than even a fixed-rate scheme. The fundamental problem is that, all such algorithms are MIMO oblivious; they do not consider the characteristics of diversity-oriented, single-stream mode and the spatial multiplexing driven, double-stream mode. We propose MiRA, a novel MIMO RA scheme that zigzags between intra- and inter-mode rate options. Our experiments show that MiRA consistently outperforms three representative RA algorithms, SampleRate, RRAA and Atheros MIMO RA, in static, mobility and collision settings.

[1]  Michael Barton,et al.  Link Adaptation Algorithm for the IEEE 802.11n MIMO System , 2008, Networking.

[2]  Dina Katabi,et al.  Frequency-aware rate adaptation and MAC protocols , 2009, MobiCom '09.

[3]  Helmut Bölcskei,et al.  An overview of MIMO communications - a key to gigabit wireless , 2004, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[4]  Suman Banerjee,et al.  802.11n under the microscope , 2008, IMC '08.

[5]  Khaled Ben Letaief,et al.  Open-Loop Link Adaptation for Next-Generation IEEE 802.11n Wireless Networks , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology.

[6]  Lizhong Zheng,et al.  Diversity and multiplexing: a fundamental tradeoff in multiple-antenna channels , 2003, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory.

[7]  John C. Bicket,et al.  Bit-rate selection in wireless networks , 2005 .

[8]  Edward W. Knightly,et al.  Modulation Rate Adaptation in Urban and Vehicular Environments: Cross-Layer Implementation and Experimental Evaluation , 2008, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking.

[9]  Haitao Wu,et al.  A Practical SNR-Guided Rate Adaptation , 2008, IEEE INFOCOM 2008 - The 27th Conference on Computer Communications.

[10]  Robert W. Heath,et al.  Switching between diversity and multiplexing in MIMO systems , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Communications.

[11]  Hari Balakrishnan,et al.  Cross-layer wireless bit rate adaptation , 2009, SIGCOMM '09.

[12]  Peter Steenkiste,et al.  Efficient channel-aware rate adaptation in dynamic environments , 2008, MobiSys '08.

[13]  Srinivasan Seshan,et al.  Understanding and mitigating the impact of RF interference on 802.11 networks , 2007, SIGCOMM '07.

[14]  Kien T. Truong,et al.  An Experimental Evaluation of Rate Adaptation for Multi-Antenna Systems , 2009, IEEE INFOCOM 2009.

[15]  Srinivasan Seshan,et al.  Understanding and mitigating the impact of RF interference on 802.11 networks , 2007, SIGCOMM 2007.

[16]  Vaduvur Bharghavan,et al.  Robust rate adaptation for 802.11 wireless networks , 2006, MobiCom '06.