Studying HT-MCSs in IEEE 802.11n Networks via Simulations

Abstract

We study the High Throughput Modulation and Coding Schemes (HT-MCS) in IEEE 802.11n In networks in this paper. The HT-MCSs are designed to deal with various channel conditions in the networks. We used ns-3 simulations to study HT-MCS 0 to HT-MCS 31 under various radio propagation models. The simulation results are presented in this paper. In our simulations the HT-MCSs were tested in networks with Friis, Nakagami, and log-distance propagation models for studying their performance under various signal attenuation and fading effects. The HT-MCSs provided consistent performance under most channel conditions in our simulations. However, they showed significantly degraded performance under the log-distance propagation model when the communication distance was relatively long because of the high signal attenuation in such a case. Our simulations also showed that an increased number of radio beams increased the ability of the modulation and coding schemes in combating adverse channel conditions.