Dynamic Multiuser Sub-Channels Allocation and Real-Time Aggregation Model for IEEE 802.11 WLANs

Abstract

Wireless local area networks (WLANs) are becoming increasingly popular due to the recent availability of affordable devices providing multiple and high rate capabilities. New PHY and MAC layer enhancements have been introduced in different IEEE 802.11 WLAN standards. These improvements have given birth to a wide range of bandwidth channels (up to 160 MHz) and very high transmission data rates (> 1 Gbps) to keep up with current and up-coming multimedia applications. The MAC layer in current WLANs randomly allocates the entire channel to only one user as a single resource, which, unfortunately, reduces the efficiency of WLANs. One way to significantly improve WLAN performance is to reduce the channel width and create many sub-channels. Based on the user's channel conditions and QoS requirements, the PHY layer resources can be dynamically allocated to several users at the same time. In this paper, we shall present a novel sub-channels access approach, titled MU-Access, with new features suitable for the forth-coming high-speed MIMO-based WLAN products. We will evaluate its performance compared to state-of-the-art systems, using NS-3 under a variety of network conditions. Our experiments will then demonstrate that our proposed scheme enhances the performance of IEEE 802.11 devices with a much higher throughput.