Wi-fi boost protocol in a heterogeneous network with Wi-Fi and RFID

Abstract

IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) supports multiple transmission rates according to the channel condition. In multi-rate IEEE 802.11 WLAN, the performance of stations with high rates may decline due to the relatively long channel occupation time of the stations with low rates. In order to mitigate this performance anomaly problem, we propose a new Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol. In the protocol, after the Access Point (AP) identifies the IDs of the near stations around the AP, it allocates time slots to the stations in the vicinity of the AP. Then they transmit data packets at the allocated time slots in a non-contention manner using the physical scheme of Wi-Fi. Through the simulation results, we show that the throughput of the proposed MAC protocol is superior to that of the traditional IEEE 802.11g by guaranteeing transmission opportunities of the stations near the AP.