Frame aggregation

About: Frame aggregation is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 487 publications have been published within this topic receiving 14295 citations.

A VoIP focused frame aggregation in wireless local area networks: Features and performance characteristics

Abstract: This paper proposes a frame aggregation scheme for VoIP traffic over wireless local area network. In this context, we studied main attributes of VoIP in wireless systems, and recalled its basic requirements when it comes to quality of service. We proved that voice streams particularity in terms of bandwidth, pattern and packet format has its own fallouts on the aggregation scheme. This involves basically the aggregation method, the aggregate exchange and the frame sizing. A well fitted aggregation implies a limited aggregate size range to append tolerable delays to higher efficiency. A performance analysis illustrated better response in terms of delay, delay variation and spectral efficiency compared to a legacy non-aggregate scheme.

Potential pitfalls of the message in message mechanism in modern 802.11 networks

Abstract: We study the performance impact of the Message in Message (MIM) mechanism in modern 802.11 networks. The MIM mechanism refers to the capability of receiver to abandon an ongoing reception of an 802.11 MAC frame and shift to decode another frame with a higher signal strength. MIM is a common feature in modern 802.11 adapters and it has been shown to improve spatial concurrency. However, our measurement study in a campus WLAN shows that under certain conditions, MIM could cause a throughput degradation of more than 30% when enabled, instead of improving it as expected. With comprehensive experiments using commercial 802.11n adapters, we characterize the impact of MIM for a range of parameters and for different scenarios. We show that a simple adaptive MIM scheme can potentially achieve throughput that is close to the optimal. Our method is practical because it can be easily implemented in existing commodity 802.11 adapters.

IEEE 802.11n/ac Wireless Network Efficiency under different TCP Congestion Controls

Abstract: Since the definition of the bufferbloat phenomenon, several Linux kernel modules have been introduced in the TCP/IP stack. While these solutions have been widely studied over wired networks, there is a lack of experimental results involving WLAN technologies, in particular, IEEE 802.11n and IEEE 802.11ac. One important algorithm introduced is named TCP Small Queues (TSQ) and has the role of limiting the number of packets that a TCP socket can enqueue in the stack, waiting for the physical layer to deliver the packets before enqueueing extra data. This mechanism breaks the frame aggregation logic on WLAN and compromises the throughput-latency tradeoff of all the TCP variants. This paper presents an experimental evaluation of this problem investigating the network efficiency of several TCP congestion controls under the presence of different TSQ policies.

Signaling-Free Max-Min Airtime Fairness in IEEE 802.11 Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract: We propose a novel media access control (MAC) protocol, referred to as signaling-free max-min airtime fair (SMAF) MAC, to improve fairness and channel utilization in ad hoc networks based on IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networks (WLANs). We introduce busy time ratio (BTR) as a measure for max-min airtime fairness. Each node estimates its BTR and adjusts the transmission duration by means of frame aggregation and fragmentation, so that it can implicitly announce the BTR to neighbor nodes. Based on the announced BTR, each of the neighbor nodes controls its contention window. In this way, the SMAF MAC works in a distributed manner without the need to know the max-min fair share of airtime, and it does not require exchanging explicit control messages among nodes to attain fairness. Moreover, we successfully incorporate the hidden node detection and resolution mechanisms into the SMAF MAC to deal with the hidden node problem in ad hoc networks. The simulation results confirm that the SMAF MAC enhances airtime fairness without degrading channel utilization, and it effectively resolves several serious problems in ad hoc networks such as the starvation, performance anomaly, and hidden node problems.

Prototype development of advanced hierarchical frame aggregation in fibre-wireless access networks

Abstract: In this reported work, the integration of the EPON and the next-generation WLAN-based mesh network is deployed. The work sheds light on the benefits of extending advanced frame aggregation techniques from next-generation WLANs to EPONs. Proposed and experimentally evaluated are advanced aggregation techniques to improve fibre-wireless (FiWi) network performance for video traffic under realistic wireless channel conditions. It is believed that this is the first time that the use of hierarchical frame aggregation techniques in EPON and FiWi networks has been experimentally examined.