Green operation of multi-band wireless LAN in 60 GHz and 2.4/5 GHz

IEEE 802.11ad Task Group is currently defining a standard for multi-gigabits per second data rate WLAN connections in the 60 GHz band with a target completion date of 2012. The 802.11n, which operates in 2.4/5 GHz band, guarantees data rate of at least 108 Mbps and coverage of about 50 meters, with a maximum data rate of 600Mbps over relatively short distances. In comparison, 60 GHz band can support multi-gigabit data-rates (up to 6 Gbps), but the typical coverage is limited to around 10 meters due to significantly higher propagation loss. Therefore, the two wireless bands provide widely different, yet complementary, characteristics in terms of range and throughput. However, there is a greater need for an efficient multi-band operation that enables selecting the optimum interface based on the communicating stations physical proximity and multi-band channel conditions. In this paper, we present techniques that facilitate green multi-band IEEE 802.11ad for portable devices. We performed a detailed simulation study and the results indicate that the proposed techniques reduce energy consumption of the multi-band Wi-Fi devices as they are at least 40% more power efficient.