Performance evaluation of stream control transport protocol over IEEE 802.11ac networks

WiFi is currently the most widely used communication standard over wireless LAN. Facing the trend that broad band and networking quality are emphasized, the IETF SIGTRAN working group and IEEE 802.11standards working groups proposed a new-generation communication protocol, stream control transmission protocol (SCTP) and wireless LAN communication standard, IEEE 802.11ac/VHT for transport layer and data-link layer. We wish the bandwidth of WLAN can reach Gbps level transmission performance to fulfill user's requirement towards service quality of wireless communication. Although SCTP and IEEE 802.11ac are emerging communication protocols designed to increase wireless communication quality, there have not been related researches conducting performance analysis on the two communication protocols. The results confirm that SCTP provides a better transmission performance than the traditional transmission control protocol (TCP). Furthermore, applying SCTP over IEEE 802.11ac results in a faster and more stable network environment. Consequently, SCTP and IEEE 802.11ac play key roles in realizing the vision of broadband transmissions in the digital convergence era.