Performance modeling and analysis of high throughput wireless media access with QoS in noisy channel for different traffic conditions

Abstract

The high throughput wireless extensions based on IEEE 802.11 or wireless-fidelity (Wi-Fi) support varieties of physical and media access control (MAC) sublayer features to boost up the physical data rate in wireless media. These include multiple input multiple out (MIMO) spatial multiplexing and spatial diversity, channel bonding, short guard intervals, advanced modulation and coding schemes (MCS), frame aggregations and block acknowledgements; for different Wi-Fi extensions like IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11ac and IEEE 802.11ad. The existing studies show that although such physical extensions improve data rates, they have internal trade-offs in channel error and sustainability that directly impact the MAC layer frame aggregation and block acknowledgement performance. In this paper, we model the impact of the channel errors over MAC layer channel access with frame aggregation and block acknowledgement, considering the standard IEEE 802.11 service class differentiation for quality of service (QoS). The evolution of aggregated frame transmission has been modeled using a three dimension Markov chain diagram, considering channel error from physical layer and different traffic conditions. The model is validated through simulation results. The mathematical model is further explored to observe and analyze the impact of channel error over the aggregated frame based MAC scheduling with different QoS performance parameters, like channel throughput, frame loss probability and channel access delay. We observe that frame aggregation sometimes shows negative impact on channel access performance that demands the need for designing an adaptive aggregation strategy.