A frame aggregation scheduler for IEEE 802.11n

Abstract

Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) based on the IEEE 802.11 standard are widely deployed in the home and enterprise segments across the globe. The IEEE 802.11n is the latest amendment that aims to achieve throughput higher than 100 Mbps at the medium access control (MAC) layer. It defines two frame aggregation schemes to improve the efficiency over the basic 802.11 MAC layer. However, the IEEE specifications do not specify the scheduler for these schemes and it is left as vendor's choice. This paper presents a detailed simulation study of these aggregation schemes and presents a simple frame aggregation scheduler. The proposed method dynamically chooses the aggregated frame size and aggregation technique based on various relevant parameters.