IEEE 802.11n MAC frame aggregation mechanisms for next-generation high-throughput WLANs

IEEE 802.11n is an ongoing next-generation wireless LAN standard that supports a very highspeed connection with more than 100 Mb/s data throughput measured at the medium access control layer. This article investigates the key MAC enhancements that help 802.11n achieve high throughput and high efficiency. A detailed description is given for various frame aggregation mechanisms proposed in the latest 802.11n draft standard. Our simulation results confirm that A-MSDU, A-MPDU, and a combination of these methods improve extensively the channel efficiency and data throughput. We analyze the performance of each frame aggregation scheme in distinct scenarios, and we conclude that overall, the two-level aggregation is the most efficacious.

[1]  Vincent W. S. Wong,et al.  WSN01-1: Frame Aggregation and Optimal Frame Size Adaptation for IEEE 802.11n WLANs , 2006, IEEE Globecom 2006.

[2]  Romit Roy Choudhury.  Performance Analysis of Data Aggregation Techniques for Wireless LAN , .

[3]  Yang Xiao.  Packing mechanisms for the IEEE 802.11n wireless LANs , 2004, IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference, 2004. GLOBECOM '04..

[4]  Yang Xiao,et al.  Throughput and delay limits of IEEE 802.11 , 2002, IEEE Communications Letters.

[5]  Youngsoo Kim,et al.  Throughput enhancement of IEEE 802.11 WLAN via frame aggregation , 2004, IEEE 60th Vehicular Technology Conference, 2004. VTC2004-Fall. 2004.