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Abstract—Wireless local area networking has experienced Best Effort services [5]. For that reason, the IEEE802.11e
tremendous growth in the last years with the proliferation of amendment [6,3-4] was approved in order to provide QoS
IEEE 802.11 devices in order to improve wireless technology. support to WLANs. It diffe-rentiates services into four Ac-
The first generation of high throughput networks known as
IEEE 802.11n was developed in 2009 to reach 130 Mbps. Fur- cess Categories (ACs) with different requirements. Moreover,
thermore, to enhance the throughput, two new amendments for it defined the Hybrid Coordination Function (HCF) as an
IEEE 802.11 are under developments which are IEEE 802.11ad enhanced medium access mechanism, which includes two
and IEEE 802.11ac. The first one aims to reach 1Gbps with access mechanisms which are: Enhanced Distributed Coordi-
supporting multi-user access techniques. The second amendment nation Access (EDCA) and HCF Controlled Channel Access
aims to enable up to 7Gbp with the possibility of transmitting in
the 60GHz band that provides the opportunity for much wider (HCCA) [7]. Although this amendment introduces the service
band channels. Another WLAN is already finalized called IEEE differentiation scheme, it was not able to guarantee QoS for
802.11aa in the goal to provide a reliable multicast transport applications having strict QoS requirements [8]. Particularly,
for video streaming. In this survey, we examine the dif-ferent all solutions that only aim to enhance the EDCA performance
PHY and MAC enhancements introduced by all these WLAN cannot resolve the performance degradation problem once the
specifications. Particularly, we focus on the characteristics of
each amendment as well as the main MAC mechanisms that channel becomes saturated [9-10]. Face to demand for higher
lead to improve the network performance. Based on the fact performance WLANs to support multimedia applications, the
that all recent MAC mechanisms aim to increase QoS guarantee standard IEEE 802.11n is appeared for next generation WLAN
for real time multimedia applications, we have studied different [11,2,12]. An IEEE 802.11n WLAN can operate with trans-
schemes and mechanisms that provide QoS satisfaction for real mission data rate reaching 600 Mbps by using multiple-input
time multimedia flows transport over WLANs. Namely, we
investigate the scheduling mechanisms, the call admission control multiple-output (MIMO) technology [2,13,14]. Three main
algorithms, and the anticipated MAC enhancement which are MAC enhancements have been appeared with 802.11n to
proposed for WLANs networks to support real time applications reduce the protocol overheads are: Aggregation MAC Service
with QoS satisfaction. Data Unit (A-MSDU) and MAC Protocol Data Unit (A-
Index Terms—MAC, 802.11ac, 802.11ad, 802.11aa, QoS mecha- MPDU) and Block Acknowledgement (BA) [2,11,15,16]. The
nisms. principle of MSDU aggregation is to allow multiple MSDUs
to be sent to the same receiver concatenated in a single
I. I NTRODUCTION MPDU, whereas the principle of MPDU aggregation is to
join multiple MPDUs to be sent with a single PHY header.
combine the benefits of both Orthogonal Frequency Division Mainly, we enumerate the possible future works as well as
Modulation (OFDM) and Single Carrier (SC) technique. Many open issues in section XII. Finally, the conclusions are listed
enhancements are proposed to the MAC layer in the aim to in section XIII.
achieve very high throughput delivery and to support direction-
ality of antenna layer [22][23][24]. These enhancements are: II. PAPER CONTENT
Bi-directional aggregation frame with aggregated Acknowl-
In this paper, we present a survey of recent generation of high
edgement (ACK), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA),
throughput WLANs and we provide a better under-standing
directional associations, and beamforming. Another WLAN
of open research issues of this emerging technology. We
specification named IEEE 802.11aa [25] is standardized which
start by providing a brief introduction of WLANs standards
is designed to provide robust streaming of Audio and Video
starting from the high throughput IEEE 802.11n to the Gigabit
transport streams. The More reliable Working group (MRG)
standard IEEE 802.11ad. We survey the different PHY and
of 802.11aa aims to extend the base MAC 802.11 to provide
MAC enhancements of each standards (i.e. 802.11n, 802.11ac,
a robust and reliable multicast audio/video streaming over
802.11ad, 802.11aa), and we present in the following an
802.11 WLAN as well as keeping data and voice performance
overview of recent research activities with discussing the
in particular for the delivery of multicast traffic with low delay
strength and drawbacks of each work. Moreover, we inves-
and jitter. In this work, we focus on all these enhancements at
tigate QoS issues in WLANs networks by describing QoS
both PHY and MAC layers and survey the existing protocols
architecture and different mechanisms such as classification,
by the literature. In fact, there are numerous works of over
scheduling and admission control. A literature overview of
viewing IEEE 802.11 standardizations [26][87][88] , but in
each mechanism is provided in the latter. Finally, a qualitative
the best of our knowledge there is no proposal for the next
comparison of the listed research activities is conducted ac-
generation of IEEE 802.11 like .11n/ac/ad/aa. In this work,
cording to the supported MAC layer, advantages, drawbacks,
we restrict our attention to the PHY and MAC enhancement
and QoS aspects that they present.
of these standards. Mainly, we focus on the introduced MAC
mechanisms which lead to reach the very high throughput.
Moreover, the adoption of WLAN networks by multimedia ap- PART I: UPCOMING WLANS NETWORKS
plications that necessitate rigorous performance requirements III. H IGH THROUGHPUT WLAN: IEEE 802.11 N
in terms of information loss and delay, has create a new The IEEE 802.11n standard was developed in 2009 to provide
challenge of accomplishing the quality of service requirements higher throughput. The main goal of IEEE 802.11n was to
of these applications. Nevertheless, providing QoS support is provide high throughput at the MAC layer achieving 300
a challenging issue due to the increased number of real-time Mbps. For this reason, the 802.11n task group (TGn) has
applications which could not be well supported among the proposed several amendments to enhance physical (PHY)
different IEEE MAC access mechanisms. In this paper, we layer, medium access control (MAC) layer and enhance the
explore QoS challenges and metrics for WLAN networks, and functionalities of WLAN. IEEE 802.11n operates in both 2.4
we focus on provisioning QoS at the MAC layer which is the GHz and 5GHz bands using 20MHz and 40MHz channels.
basis of communication stack and has the ability to tune key One of the major PHY enhancements is the use of Mul-
QoS specific parameters. All the relevant QoS functionality’s tiple Input Multiple Output MIMO technology. The use of
such as classification, admission control, and scheduling will MIMO technology together with OFDM (MIMO-OFDM) and
be discussed. Furthermore, we aim to overview the recent doubling the channel bandwidth from 20 MHz to 40 MHz
MAC layer enhancements and the scheduling algorithms that leads to improve the data rate of the PHY layer up to 600
have been proposed to guarantee QoS for multimedia services. Mbps. Three main MAC enhancements have been appeared
Particularly, we focus on scheduling mechanisms. The rest of with 802.11n to reduce the protocol overheads: Aggregation
this paper surveys both the upcoming WLANs generations MAC Service Data Unit (A-MSDU) and Aggregation MAC
and the QoS mechanisms which aim to provide satisfaction to Protocol Data Unit (A-MPDU) and Block Acknowledgement
real time application. The remaining sections are divided into (BA). In the following, we examine the major MAC and PHY
three major parts. In part I (Sections III-VIII), we overview enhancements of 802.11n.
the enhancements of the recent WLANs networks generations.
Section III, IV, V, and VI describe the PHY and MAC
layers enhancements of IEEE 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ad, A. MIMO-OFDM physical layer
and 802.11aa respectively. In section VII, we discuss different IEEE 802.11n increases the channel capacity through using
research activities of each standard listed in the above sections. the 40MHz spectrum and operating with OFDM scheme with
A synthesis study about all MAC enhancements is drawn MIMO technique. MIMO technology improves performance
in section VIII. In part II (Sections IX-XI), we investigate since it relies on antenna diversity and spatial multiplexing
the different QoS components. In section IX, we focus on which permit to transmit and receive from multiple spatial
the QoS architecture. After that, we define the different channels all together. Moreover, MIMO technology overcomes
QoS mechanisms namely: classification, admission control, the legacy IEEE 802.11 performance degradation over multi-
and scheduling in section X. In section XI, we review the path environment. In fact, multipath wireless fading channel
related works which provide MAC solutions, and scheduling causes poor performance in legacy 802.11 PHY layer. Yet,
proposals for QoS support in WLANs networks. In part III with MIMO technology, bit error rate is decreased and data
(Sections XII-XIII), we summarize the content of this survey. throughput is improved over multipath environment.
1716 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 15, NO. 4, FOURTH QUARTER 2013
B. Aggregation mechanism
Since the main limitation of the legacy 802.11 MAC layer is
the overhead coupled with MAC header, using larger packets is
one solution to to reduce the overhead caused by MAC header.
In this context, IEEE 802.11n proposed the aggregation
scheme where a number of frames are transmitted together into
aggregated packets. In fact, the aggregation scheme reduces
the time of transmitting overheads, and reduces the waiting
time caused by random backoff period during successive
frame transmissions. Fundamentally, A-MSDU is designed
to tolerate multiple MSDUs to be transmitted to the same Fig. 1. IEEE802.11n two-level aggregation concept
receiver concatenated in a one MPDU. The top MAC layer
receives packets from the Link Layer and these buffered
packets are then aggregated to form a single A-MSDU. For The Immediate BA with RIFS mode is similar to Immediate
each MSDU subframe in an A-MSDU frame, the MSDU BA SIFS mode, but the frames are separated with RIFS which
subframe includes the Subframe Header, the MSDU data is less than SIFS.
payload and the Padding field. The Subframe Header includes
three fields: the Destination Address, the Source Address and
IV. V ERY H IGH THROUGHPUT WLAN: IEEE 802.11 AC
Length which indicates the MSDU data payload. The AMSDU
aggregation is only tolerable for packets having the same The most recent WLAN standard 802.11n can deliver up to
source and destination. The maximum length A-MSDU that a
600Mbps data rate at physical layer. Nevertheless, only one-
station can receive is either 3839 bytes or 7935 bytes. A single
to-one communication in the infrastructure mode is supported.
A-MSDU contains multiple MSDU subframes. A single A-
Since only one pair of STAs (one AP and one non-AP STA)
MSDU frame is trans-mitted after adding the Physical Header,
can exchange data with each other in a basic service set
the MAC header and the FCS field. The principle of A-MPDU BSS, the network throughput is limited by the maximum per-
is to send multiple MPDU subframes with a unique PHY
link data rate. To improve the network throughput, a new
header in the goal to reduce the overhead PHY header. For
standard called IEEE 802.11ac is under development and the
each A-MPDU, every MPDU subframe includes an MPDU first amendment appeared in August 2011[18].
frame, the MPDU delimiter and the padding bytes. Multiple
MPDU subframes are concatenated into one larger A-MPDU
frame. All the MPDU subframes within an A-MPDU should
A. PHY layer enhancements
be addressed to the same receiver, but the MPDU subframe
could have different source address. With A-MPDU, is fully Although IEEE 802.11ac will be largely an evolution of IEEE
formed MAC PDUs are logically aggregated at the bottom 802.11n, it is based on 802.11n in some parts such as channel
of the MAC. A short MPDU delimiter is pretended to each coding and MIMO mode. The four major enhancements of
MPDU and the aggregate presented to the PHY as the PSDU the PHY layer are the use of 80/160MHz channels, 256QAM,
for transmission in a single PPDU. The MPDU delimiter is up to eight antennas and downlink multi-user MIMO as it is
32 bits in length and consists of a 4-bit reserved field, a mentioned in [35][36] .
12-bit MPDU length field, an 8-bit CRC field, and an 8-bit 1) 80MHz bonding technique: IEEE 802.11ac supports
signature field. The 8-bit CRC covers the 4-bit reserved and 80MHz channels as well as 20MHz and 40MHz channels,
12-bit length fields and validates the integrity of the header. with the optional use of contiguous 160MHz channels or two
The MPDU is padded with 0-3 bytes to round it up to a 32-bit non-contiguous 80MHz channels. The use of 80MHz channels
word boundary. A station advertises the maximum A-MPDU is based on bonding two adjacent 40MHz channels.
length that it can receive in its HT Capabilities element. The
2) 256 QAM (Quadrature amplitude modulation): 802.11ac
advertised maximum length may be one of the following:
adds an optional and higher modulation scheme 256QAM
8191, 16383, 32767, or 65 535 bytes. Fig.1 represents the
while 802.11n is based on using 64QAM modulation tech-
two level of aggregation scheme A-MSDU and A-MPDU.
nique. This option provides a 33
3) 8*8 MIMO antenna support: IEEE 802.11ac extends the
C. Block Acknowledgement four special streams of 802.11n to eight.
This scheme consists on grouping the frame and sharing the 4) Downlink MU-MIMO: IEEE 802.11ac supports the down-
access time in the channel between several frames possessing link MU-MIMO technology to allow multiple frames to be
the same destination. Thus, the frames are sent in a burst, sep- sent from the AP to multiple receivers simultaneously through
arated with SIFS, during the period of a transmit opportunity multiple spatial streams. Thus, simultaneous streams are given
(TXOP). All the frames sent are acknowledged by a unique to users on the same channel. It aims to achieve at least 1Gbps
Block Acknowledgement (BA) instead of an ACK frame for and 500Mbps as maximum throughput at multi-station and
each frame transmitted. The station transmits a request for single link throughput respectively, at the MAC data service
BA (BAR), and the receiver respond with BA after a SIFS access point. In fig.2, the AP transmits to three non-AP STAs
period. The transmission takes place during a TXOP period. at the same time, BA is used for acknowledgement.
CHARFI et al.: PHY/MAC ENHANCEMENTS AND QOS MECHANISMS FOR VERY HIGH THROUGHPUT WLANS: A SURVEY 1717
TABLE I
802.11 AC TXOP SHARING PHASES
B. MAC layer enhancements based on TXOP Limit of the primary AC and the transmission
time is based on the duration of the amount of data scheduled
1) TXOP sharing: To support multiple downlink traffic to be transmitted by the primary AC. The MU-TXOP period is
streams to multiple receiver STAs simultaneously, IEEE finished when the primary AC finishes its transmission, even
802.11ac enhance the MAC layer by extending the existing though secondary ACs has more frames to transmit.
transmit opportunity by proposing a new technique called Fig.2 presents the manner in which different ACs can share
TXOP sharing [20]. The idea of proposing TXOP sharing an EDCA TXOP. AC-VI is considered as the primary AC,
comes from the limitations of the legacy EDCA TXOP prin- and it wants to send two blocks of MSDUs frames for STA-1
ciple. Indeed, during an EDCA TXOP obtained by a station, and STA-2 respectively. Hence, these two stations are primary
only frames belonging to the same AC are transmitted. By destinations. Secondary ACs are AC-VO and AC-BE, and
this way, multiple frames belonging to different ACs are not STA-2 is a secondary destination. MSDUs frames will be
allowed to be transmitted simultaneously. The main idea of transmitted into multiple A-MPDUs. For the two secondary
TXOP sharing is to allow the AP to per-form simultaneous ACs, the higher priority is transmitted first. The downlink
transmissions to multiple receiving STAs by using the group transmission of multiple frames sharing a TXOP is illustrated
ID. With this scheme, each EDCF of an AP uses its own in Fig.3.
EDCA parameters to compete for TXOP. When an EDCF 2) Enhanced aggregation: IEEE 802.11n proposed an aggre-
gains a TXOP, it will be the owner of this TXOP, and its as- gation scheme where multiple subframes are accumulated and
sociated ACs is considered as Primary AC and the remainders transmitted in one frame in order to improve MAC efficiency.
ACs are the secondary. We can talk about multi-user TXOP There are two types of aggregation: A-MSDU and A-MPDU,
(MU-TXOP) when the primary AC allows secondary ACs and both can be combined in one frame with two aggregation
to share the TXOP for simultaneous transmissions. Hence, levels A-MSDU/A-MPDU. The IEEE 802.11ac improves this
the AP has two types of destinations: Primary and secondary scheme and by extending the length of A-MSDU and A-
destinations which are respectively targeted by data frames MPDU size [36]. Table.2 illustrates the length of frames in
of primary AC and secondary AC. We can have only one both 802.11n and 802.11ac.
primary AC and multiple secondary ACs, but there could be 3) Expected IEEE 802.11ac MAC frame format : IEEE
multiple destinations (primary and secondary). As it is shown 802.11ac adds new VHT fields for PPDU frame as it is
in table.1, 802.11ac adds new phase to guarantee the TXOP illustrated in Fig.4. All legacy (L) 802.11 devices use L-STF
sharing mechanism. In this period, it is the primary AC that (Short Training Field), L-LTF (Long Training Field) and L-
decides which secondary AC is permitted to share the TXOP SIG (SIGnal). L-STF field is used to improve automatic gain
with, as well as destinations (primary and secondary) to target control in a MIMO transmission. Both L-STF and L-LTF
for transmissions. Moreover, the duration of TXOP is defined contain information to identify the signal, perform frequency
1718 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 15, NO. 4, FOURTH QUARTER 2013
d) CBP/ Frame aggregation , Aggregation-ACK and Bi- less sensitive to jitter, not demanding a bandwidth guarantees,
directional aggregation with ACK: Access during CBP is but very sensitive to the response time. The main inefficiency
based on a modified 802.11e EDCA access mechanism that of 802.11 MAC access mechanisms CSMA/CA is that it
is fine tuned or directional communication. Each access pri- operates with omni-directional reception capability, omni-
ority transmits data based on 802.11 CSMA/CA. The CBP directional transmission capability, and a random backoff
scheduling supports enhanced data transmission and thus procedure. However, the 60GHz technology is not suitable for
guarantees the high throughput and delay requirements of CSMA/CA assumptions where stations change dynamically
60GHz applications. In the transmission period of a traffic the antenna pattern towards different directions. To support
stream an exchange of frame aggregation and aggregation- this technology, 802.11ad extends the basic 802.11 MAC
ACK aggregation is accomplished in CBP phase. access mechanism CSMA/CA and proposed a new mechanism
802.11ad supports new aggregation scheme that supports video enabling a STA to know in advance the periods of time when
traffics called video aggregation MSDU (VA-MSDU). A VA- it is estimated to be awake and to know which other STA
MSDU frame consists of a MAC sub-header with Header it should point its antenna pattern. In the expected 802.11ad
Check Sequence (HCS) and aggregated MSDUs with sub- MAC access mechanism, the beacon period includes both
frame FCS. A MAC sub-header includes Aggregated MSDUs TDMA and CSMA [22]. In fact TDMA is needed for video
information and Aggregation ACK (A-ACK) bitmap. The applications due to its better QoS support and efficiency, while
structure of a VA-MSDU MAC frame is given by Fig.8. CSMA/CA is used for bursty type of application like web
The maximum length of each MSDU of one VA-MSDU browsing since it can grantee lower average latency than
is 1Mbytes including the SFCS field, while 16Mbytes is TDMA. Polling is an efficient way to deal with dynamic
the maximum length allowed for aggregated MSDUs. Bi- allocation/re-allocation of channel time which is scheduled
directional VA-MSDU is enabled using both aggregation and but inactive. Moreover, polling mechanism provides higher
aggregation ACK bitmap. priority medium access for the period of CSMA/CA.
e) SP/ TDMA access mechanism Access: during SPs periods f) Co-exsistance among homogeneous systems: Co-existence
is scheduled and assigned for specific stations. The 60GHz for homogeneous systems gives QoS guaran-tee during CBP.
operation mode shared with the various set of requirements Indeed, it avoids mutual interference by overlapping homoge-
form a considerable challenge for the MAC Layer design. nous networks to data transmission during CBP using co-
For example, applications like wireless display need rigorous existence action frame (CAF). The CAF includes schedule
requirements in terms of QoS in addition to their sensitivity information of the contention basic period CBP. The station
to delay and jitter. Other applications like web browsing are may periodically sends out CAFs frames for potentially in-
CHARFI et al.: PHY/MAC ENHANCEMENTS AND QOS MECHANISMS FOR VERY HIGH THROUGHPUT WLANS: A SURVEY 1721
Fig. 9. Mutual interference [72] Fig. 11. Co-existence among heterogenous systems [72]
TABLE III
C OMPARATIVE STUDY OF 802.11 E RELATED WORKS
A. An overview of 802.11e related researches priority traffic. Authors in [83] studied and introduced the
IEEE 802.11e standard provisioning QoS at the MAC layer.
More of the existing research studies are proposed for IEEE They highlighted the enhancements of 802.11e at the MAC
802.11e mechanisms in order to provide QoS satisfaction layer. In particular, the contention-based and contention-free
for multimedia applications. From the literature overview, we centrally controlled channel access mechanisms are introduced
focus on Xiao’s works since he considered all the 802.11e QoS in addition to others MAC protocol operations and parameters.
parameters and metrics by numerous studies. Authors in [78] Moreover, authors focused on the call admission control and
interested on how to guarantee QoS at the contention-based scheduling mechanisms which are designed for QoS support in
MAC layer. In this objective, they provided a deep survey 802.11e networks. Authors in [86] pro-posed an enhancement
about QoS guarantee and provisioning at the contention- to the IEEE 802.11e EDCA by adding TXOP period based
based wireless MAC layer in IEEE 802.11e WLANs with frame-concatenation with block-acknowledgement policy. The
considering different QoS mechanisms such as distributed main motivation of their work is that the existing EDCA
admission control, data control, bandwidth allocation, and cannot provide QoS satisfaction for real-time applications.
handoff/roaming. Authors in [79] focused on the DCF inef- Moreover, authors proposed an analytical model based on
ficiencies for real-time applications, and studied the backoff- dimensional Markov chain to compute the throughput and
based priority schemes for IEEE 802.11 and the emerging delay of both EDCA and EDCA with enhanced frame concate-
differentiation parameters of IEEE 802.11e standard as well nation with block acknowledgement scheme. Table.4. gives the
as the mini-mum backoff window size, the backoff window strength and limitation of each work.
increasing factor, and the retransmission limit parameters.
Moreover, they extended the Bianchi’s [71] model to propose
B. An overview of 802.11n related researches
an analytical model to derive saturation throughput, saturation
delays, and frame-dropping probabilities of different priority There are many works evaluating the 802.11n aggregation
classes. Furthermore, they proposed a priority scheme in performance. In [27] authors demonstrate that the two level
which smaller value of retry limit are attributed to higher prior- aggregation scheme provides more efficiency than A-MSDU
ity stations would while lower priority stations may experience and A-MPDU schemes. In [28] a novel analytical model
more reties. This proposed scheme provides differentiated ser- is proposed in order to compare A-MSDU and A-MPDU
vices since leads to increase the contention window of smaller concepts for UDP and TCP flows. Nevertheless the two-level
1724 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 15, NO. 4, FOURTH QUARTER 2013
TABLE IV
C OMPARATIVE STUDY OF 802.11 N RELATED WORKS
aggregation scheme is not supported and only aggregated A- and packet concatenation which overcome the theoretical
MSDU with maximum length is used for this study. Further- throughput limit and reach higher throughput. The major
more, this model is not adopted for real net-work since it uses contribution of their work is the classification of the frame
an infinite retry limit value. In [29], authors studied the impact aggregation mechanisms according to the network architecture
of aggregation overheads in the system performance but they for ex-ample distributed vs. centrally controlled, uplink vs.
didn’t consider the overhead caused by channel contention and down-link, PHY-level vs. MAC-level, and immediate ACK
feedbacks. All these studies are designed for unicast transport vs. delayed ACK. Authors in [85] proposed different MAC
without considering multicast transmissions; authors in [30] schemes for next generation high throughput network IEEE
fill this gap by developing an analytical model for muticast 802.11n in order to improve the network throughput. The pro-
transport of aggregated frames. Moreover, they defined a new posed MAC mechanisms consist of Direct Link Protocol, with
ACK policy to support 802.11aa multicast transmissions in no Acknowledgement, no Retransmissions, Block Acknowl-
802.11n. Another aggregation scheme named AFR Aggrega- edgement Protocol, Concatenation, Packing, Multiple Frame
tion with Fragment Retransmission is evaluated in [31] where Transmission and Piggyback. Table.5. gives the strengths and
multiple packets are aggregated and transmitted in a single limitations of each work.
large frame and provided the delay analysis. Authors in [32]
handles with the weakness of 802.11 aggregation schemes in
term of delay, they presented a detailed analysis on packet C. An overview of 802.11ac related researches
delay. They considered a packet delay as the amount of time One of the main challenges of IEEE 802.11ac specification
separating the instant of generating this packet and the instant is to allow multi-user downlink transmissions, authors in [20]
of successfully receiving it. They conducted that minimum reported this current status with taking into consideration the
packet delay can be granted with only a single aggregation possible MAC enhancements to support MU-MIMO mech-
size depending on the PHY rate while transmitting large anism. They have demonstrated how the exist-ing 802.11e
aggregation frame size increases delay. Their study proves that mechanisms can’t support simultaneous transmission of mul-
802.11n is not appropriate for very high rates. In our previous tiple frames belonging to different ACs. They proposed the
work [33] we have deal with the performance 802.11n ag- TXOP sharing which is an extension of the legacy 802.11e
gregation scheme among other 802.11 standards particularly TXOP technique to fill this gap and to support multiple
when transmitting Voice Over IP flows. However, in [34] downlink traffic streams to multiple receiver STAs simultane-
we have focused on limitation of the aggregation concept ously. In [35] authors interested on supporting 20/40/80MHz
when transmitting prioritized traffics. An analytical model for 802.11ac channel in the presence of other 20MHz 802.11a/n
throughput and end-to-end delay under unsaturated 802.11n devices working in the secondary channels of the 80MHz
network is developed taking in consideration the different channel. They concluded that 802.11ac devices need, but
Access Categories (AC) priorities. We have demonstrated not obligatory, the use of dynamic bandwidth channel access
that even with aggregation mechanism, 802.11n is not able scheme so as to well employ the 80MHz channel in a dense
to guarantee QoS for high priority traffics. Authors in [84] networking environment. Furthermore, they demonstrated the
investigated the new high throughput IEEE 802.11n standard. requirement of enhancing the secondary channel CCA thresh-
PHY and MAC enhancements are highlighted. Mainly, they old with the aim to migrate collisions among 802.11ac and
proposed some MAC enhancements such as frame aggregation 802.11a/n devices in the secondary channels. Authors in [36]
CHARFI et al.: PHY/MAC ENHANCEMENTS AND QOS MECHANISMS FOR VERY HIGH THROUGHPUT WLANS: A SURVEY 1725
TABLE V
C OMPARATIVE STUDY OF 802.11 AC RELATED WORKS
primary showed that better throughput can be achieved with in 60GHz band. They focused on beamforming and directional
a configuration of 802.11ac 80MHz and single/two special antenna as PHY layer enhancements. In [39] authors illustrated
streams rather than a configuration of 802.11n 40MHz and a systematic design method to settle on MCS schemes for
two special streams. Their analysis illustrated the perfor- realistic system which has some requirements in term of data
mance of the frame aggregation scheme especially the hybrid rate, power consumption and hardware complexity. The used
one (two aggregation levels A-MSDU/A-MPDU) in term of method can support mmWave system of 802.11ad 60Ghz
guarantying maximum throughput values for both 802.11n network with guarantying the above requirements. In [24],
and 802.11ac devices. In [37] authors focused on combating authors interested on the 60 GHz millimeter-wave wireless
hidden nodes which are located in the non-primary channels. technology. They evaluated the performance of 802.11ad
They proposed an effective MAC protection mechanism to MAC and PHY layers enhancements by analyzing the the-
overcome this limitation, which was accepted as a mandatory oretical MAC throughput with varied bit error rate, packet
part for 802.11ac specification. In addition to that, authors sizes and modes, and by calculating packet error rate and
proposed an extension for 802.11n channel bounding schemes PHY throughput with considering 22 space-time block coding
to 80MHz range after have studied the fairness of the PIFS (STBC) scheme. Authors in [40] studied the performance of
mechanisms. Author’s results proved that when comparing beamforming techniques for 60Ghz WPANs networks The
dynamic and static BW schemes, the first one recommends comparative study between the three types of beamforming
better performance and robustness, particularly when there is showed that complexity is more reduced with Symbol-wise
more than one heavily loaded OBSS on diverse channels of beamforming than subcarrier-wise beamforming but causing
the 80MHz BSS. While the majority of these works focused some performance degradation. Yet, hybrid beamforming of-
on the PHY layer enhancements, authors in [38] interested fers better performance at a reasonable cost. Authors in [23]
on those of the MAC layer and evaluated the CSMA/CA interested also on the main MAC and PHY layer enhancements
based DL MU-MIMO protocol with three different response of 802.11ad with evaluating by simulations the performance of
mechanisms analytically and by simulations. Moreover, they the multi-gigabit network over 60GHz spectrum band. Table.7.
tried to ovoid hidden nodes in the network when DL MU- gives the strength and limitation of each work.
MIMO is supported by proposing a novel weighted queuing
mechanisms. With this proposal mechanism, the saturation E. An overview of 802.11aa related researches
throughput achieved by Dl MU-MIMO increases as the num-
ber of contending stations increase, and better performance The 802.11aa specification is designed to offer the reliabil-
and efficiency are recommended when using DL MU-MIMO ity for multicast transport as well as robustness for video
protocol in a network containing more than two stations. transport. In [30] authors interested on the performance of
Table.6. gives the strength and limitation of each work. applying the 802.11n aggregation schemes among 802.11aa
multicast transport. Firstly, some inefficiency are introduced
such as the multicast unreliability problem with-in the legacy
D. An overview of 802.11ad related researches 802.11 standard, in addition to the performance degradation
IEEE 802.11ad is developed to support intensive applications of the 802.11n aggregation schemes when using the 802.11aa
by considering the available spectrum in the 60GHz range. extensions for multicast transport. In order to overcome this
There are few works that studied the 802.11ad enhancements weakness, authors proposed a new extension for the existing
performance, authors in [22] provided a detailed overview of MRG service named MRG-IBA policy. They developed a new
the charter, and the current IEEE 802.11ad task group activi- analytical model to estimate the performance of transporting
ties, they interested further on the expected enhancements to A-MSDU and A-MPDU aggregation schemes in a multicast
802.11. They illustrated the MAC enhancement by using Per- mode based on MRG-IBA recovery policy. Analytical results
sonal BSS in order to optimize peer-to-peer communications proved that when employing the proposed policy, both aggre-
and to consider one station as a center point for management gation schemes maintained their performance. Authors in [41]
and control of the BSS. Others MAC enhancements are proposed a new multicast protocol for 802.11 WLAN called
proposed especially the use of both TDMA and CSMA access RPMP based on leader selection and NACK frames. They
mechanisms in a beacon interval to support directional antenna illustrated the multicast transmission procedure and proved
1726 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 15, NO. 4, FOURTH QUARTER 2013
TABLE VI
C OMPARATIVE STUDY OF 802.11 AD RELATED WORKS
TABLE VII
C OMPARATIVE STUDY OF 802.11 AA RELATED WORKS
by simulation that RPMP is more reliable and efficient than In Fig.15 we draw the planned MAC access mechanism and
LBP protocol since it adds one OFDM symbol in the PLCP the relation between recent and oldest WLAN versions. In
header of the multicast frame instead of RTS/CTS frames ex- Table.9 we give a comparison between all upcoming WLANs
change. Using this protection mechanism increases efficiency specifications in term of bandwidth, channel, data rates, MAC
by avoiding needless retransmissions. In [42] authors focused mechanisms, PHY layer characteristics.
also on the RPMP protocol and evaluated its performance in
a heavy loaded WLAN. They demonstrated how much it is
PART II: Q UALITY OF SERVICE Q O S PROVISIONNING IN
reliable and efficient for multicast transmission, as well as
NEW GENERATION WLAN S
it is very suitable for multimedia applications. Particularly,
RPMP is a solution for the limitation of the channel unfair IX. Q O S A RCHITECTURE
sharing between unicast and multicast flow. Authors in [43] In the previous section, we have illustrated the amazing growth
proposed a NACK LBP as a new scheme for the IEEE in the area of wireless networking technologies with the
802.11aa task group TGaa. They provided a study of the aim of providing more performance for intensive multi-media
performance of the proposed protocol for leader-based pro- applications. At the same time, there has been a widespread
tocols by simulations and measurement environment to point deployment and usage of real-time applications such as Voice-
up the probabilities of feedback cancellation. Authors in [44] over-IP, video calls/video conferential, live network seminars,
have done an analysis to evaluate the performance of the and networked gaming. To provide QoS satisfaction, network
IEEE 802.11aa mechanisms. They compared the throughput developers must integrate QoS mechanisms to allow differen-
performance and reliability between 802.11aa mechanisms tiation between all traffic types and guarantee allocation of
and the legacy multicast service of 802.11 when varying resources to different real-time applications that have strict
the number of video and data flows. The comparative study requirements in terms of delay and loss.
showed that all GCR mechanisms offer an important reliability The QoS mechanisms can be performed within or outside
beyond 90% when operating in non saturation conditions. traffics as it is illustrated in Fig.16, called also ”Traffic han-
Table.8. gives the strength and limitation of each work. dling mechanisms” or ”bandwidth management mechanisms”
respectively. In-traffic mechanisms are designed to classify,
VIII. S YNTHESIS OF ENHANCEMENTS INTRODUCED BY handle, and monitor the traffic across the network, while out-of
THE NEXT GENERATION OF WLAN S NETWORKS traffic mechanisms manage the network resource and coordi-
Each IEEE 802.11 version has introduced some enhancements nate the network devices. The main In-traffic mechanisms are:
for the MAC layer, especially for the MAC access mecha- classification, channel access and packet scheduling, whereas
nisms. All excepted enhancements are fundamentally based resources reservation and admission control are the main
on the previous mechanisms defined by the oldest standard. mechanisms of out-of traffic mechanisms.
CHARFI et al.: PHY/MAC ENHANCEMENTS AND QOS MECHANISMS FOR VERY HIGH THROUGHPUT WLANS: A SURVEY 1727
X. C LASSIFICATION , SCHEDULING , AND ADMISSION trol mechanism is performed to take a decision of accepting
CONTROL Q O S MECHANISM or not the incoming flow according to its QoS requirements
and the available network resources. Afterwards, packets are
In this subsection we will focus on three major mechanisms scheduled and queued into memory buffers. Generally, in
which are: Classification, admission control and scheduling. 802.11 WLANs networks an admission control algorithm
Fig.17 illustrates where these mechanism can be implemented is implemented in the access point. Basically, admission
in a traffic flow. First of all, packet classification is used to control mechanism can be classified into three categories:
categorize packets into flows and distinguish between different measurement, model, and hybrid based admission control.
kinds of traffics. Once packets are classified, an admission con- In measurement-based schemes [45][46][47][48], admission
1728 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 15, NO. 4, FOURTH QUARTER 2013
congestion at the bottleneck AP, yet they possesses some support differentiated services and traffic prioritization, it is
deficiencies with are surmounted by block acknowledgement very simple and it improves the efficiency of both DCF and
and reverse direction protocol. PCF mechanism in terms of throughput and medium access
Authors in [61] presented a design of a high throughput MAC delay. Furthermore, it reduces collisions in the network and it
supporting QoS requirements which combine the 802.11e can be adopted for realistic medium access control for future
Hybrid Coordination Function HCF with the 802.11n frame wireless networks.
aggregation scheme. The proposed design includes some QoS Authors in [64] proposed a centralized scheduling mechanism
mechanisms such as: admission control, calculating allocated in order to overcome the deficiencies of the IEEE 802.11e
TXOP, and a scheduler with the aim to improve throughput HCCA protocol and improve the QoS provision for multi-
of best-effort traffic while QoS mechanisms just support real- media applications. In fact, the simple scheduler HCCA is
time traffic. They showed by simulation that the proposed not efficient for multimedia applications with variable bit
new MAC protocol has many advantages such as improving rates since it generates only constant bit rate. The proposed
capacity for real-time traffic, enhancing channel utilization, scheduling algorithm is based on optimal control theory and
and minimizing packet delay for best-effort traffic. TXOP allocation which resides in allocating the transmission
In [77] authors focused on bandwidth allocation schemes opportunity to each station with considering the queue length
for IEEE 802.11 contention-based distributed wireless LANs. of each station as feedback information and using an opti-
In this purpose, they proposed nine bandwidth allocation mization performance index. Authors showed by simulations
schemes, named sharing schemes, with guaranteed QoS for that this scheme offers better QoS for real time flows with
integrated voice/video/data traffic in EDCA WLANs. More- efficient bandwidth sharing.
over, they proposed a guard period for best-effort data traffic Authors in [65] interested on supporting QoS performance
to prevent bandwidth from over provisioning. Authors proved among the IEEE 802.1n aggregation scheme and proposed a
that the proposed scheme provide satisfaction for QoS in a scheduling algorithm in this purpose. Aggregation mechanism
contention based channel. However, the presented solution is improve the throughput through aggregating several packet
too complex since it requires changes to the 802.11e standard. in a frame before transmission, however it badly affects the
transmission delay. They focused on benefits and drawbacks
of both A-MSDU and A-MPDU in very high throughput
B. MAC scheduling mechanisms network. Authors suggested a frame aggregation scheduler that
In the research literature, there are an important number of dynamically chooses the length of an aggregated frame and
studies which focus on scheduling methods for improving QoS the used aggregation technique. This scheduler is based on
performance and guarantying fairness for real-time flows in estimating the optimal time deadline of each frame as well as
a wireless network. The goal of this review is to discover estimating the best aggregation scheme to use. They proved
specific features of different proposed schedulers that operate by simulations that the proposed scheduler outperforms the
according to these aims. legacy A-MPDU performance and avoids the tradeoff between
Authors in [62] proposed a distributed scheduling algorithm throughout and delay.
for 802.11ad-hoc networks. The main motivation of their work Authors in [66] proposed tow scheduling algorithms named re-
is that IEEE 802.11e provides only differentiation among spectively DS-LWDF (Differentiated Service LWDF) and WP-
packets of different access categories ACs and does not LWDF (Weighted Power) based on LWDF (Largest Weighted
improve service quality in networks carrying substantial VoIP Delay First). The main motivation of their pro-posal is the
traffic. To overcome this limitation, authors proposed a queue- need for a network capable of supporting multi-services having
adaptive scheduling mechanism that addresses scheduling dif- different QoS requirements in IEEE 802.11 networks. The DS-
ferentiation among flows of the same access category. The LWDF algorithm is planned to realize scheduling among non-
proposed scheduling algorithm is based on adapting values real and real time traffics, while WP-LWDF uses weighed
of the contention window, the transmission opportunity, and differentiated service based on the first algorithm. Authors
the inter-frame spacing by according to them new parameters justified by simulations the performance of these two sched-
which are: QACW, QATXOP, and QACW respectively. Simu- ulers are efficient given that throughput is settled and fairness
lation results showed that the proposed algorithm is effective among non-real traffics is supported in addition to reducing
for VoIP packets since it lowers the percentage of dropped the delay of real-time services.
packets while the number of active calls increases. Therefore, Authors in [67] proposed a centralized scheduling localized
it recovers system stability at higher traffic loads causing a in the AP, and it is called Fair QoS Agent (FQA). They
considerable improvement in call carrying capacity. aim to concurrently provide per class QoS enhancement and
Authors in [63] focused on legacy IEEE 802.11 MAC layer per-station fair channel sharing in the network by adding
limitations and proposed a centralized scheduling based MAC two additional components DSD and SLM over the 802.11
protocol CSMAC derived from the basic access mechanism MAC Layer. The Dual Service Differentiator DSD is pro-
DCF. Indeed, the legacy 802.11 DCF leads to lower values posed to improve QoS for different services while minimizing
of throughput since it is based on a CSMA/CA and random the delay and jitter in addition to maintaining high overall
backoff mechanism. The proposed CSMAC scheduling algo- channel utilization by adjusting the packet drop probability.
rithm is localized on the AP which maintains a list of the The Service Level Manager SLM is intended to assure fair
time-slots that have been reserved by the transmitting stations channel sharing among stations; it uses a weighted allocation
for next transmissions. Although CSMAC scheduling does not of channel access time for this purpose. Mainly, SLM is
1730 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 15, NO. 4, FOURTH QUARTER 2013
based on estimating the fair share of each station as well as clear channel condition while maintaining a good utilization as
dynamically adjusting the service level of packets. Authors well as improving the performance of real-time applications.
illustrated by simulations the performance of the proposed Yet, these schemes do not consider bandwidth reduction in
algorithm in terms of queuing delay and packet loss rate with multi-hop ad hoc environments.
maintaining the channel utilization. An enhanced distributed control algorithm is proposed in
[82] for the emerging IEEE 802.11e EDCA networks. The
proposed algorithm is based on the AP which transmits
C. Admission control mechanisms budget every beacon interval for each AC. It is evaluated
In [74] authors proposed a Distributed Admission Control for video streams mainly in term of throughput and delay.
(DAC) mechanism for EDCF to protect the higher priority In this scheme, each budget indicates the allowable trans-
streams by incorporating the transmission budget for each mission time per AC as well as what is being utilized. Each
AC. Mainly, he proposed a two-level Protection and Guarantee station determines an internal transmission limit per AC based
Mechanism. At the first level, each existing voice or video flow on successfully used transmission time, from the previous
is protected from new and other existing QoS flows. At the beacon interval, and the transmission budget. The proposed
second level, the existing QoS flows are protected from best mechanism protect existing streams since new flows are not
effort traffic. They proved by simulations that the proposed able to obtain more transmission time, and existing flows will
two-level protection and guarantee mechanism satisfy QoS not be allowed to increase their transmission time when the
requirements for different applications. This work is extended transmission budget for an AC is depleted. Authors proved
in [75] to protect voice and video flows from the upcoming by simulation results that such algorithm protects the flows in
and already existing flows. In this aim, they proposed, as the EDCA since they can achieve the desired throughput, while
above work, a two level protection. The first level is based on a improving the total throughput. Yet, these performances are
distributed admission control with tried-and-known and early- available only when the traffic load is not very heavy.
protection mechanisms. The second level is based on adopting
frame-based and limit-based data control mechanisms. They D. Comparative and synthesis study
proved by simulations that the proposed mechanisms satisfy
In Table.10 we illustrate a comparative study of all reviewed
QoS requirements for voice and video applications.
works in term of: considered 802.11 parameters, QoS aspects,
In [76] authors proposed two QoS MAC mechanisms to
type of supported traffic, and if this work can support VHT
satisfy quality of service requirements for variable bit rate
networks. In Table.11, Table.12, and Table.13 we present
VoIP. These two mechanisms are the Access Time Based
respectively a comparative study of different QoS mechanisms
Admission Control algorithm (AT-AC) and the AP Dynamic
of the IEEE 802.11 MAC layer, MAC schedulers, and Call
Access (AP-DA) algorithm. Authors proved by simulations
admission control mechanisms that we have discussed in the
the performance of their proposals. In particular, the first
above sections. Moreover, the table presents a summarized
algorithm improves QoS of VBR VoIP traffic in terms of
comparison of the discussed related works in two groups: pro-
average delay and delay distribution, and the second one
posed enhanced MAC layer for QoS support and MAC sched-
presents a solution for balancing downlink/uplink VoIP traffic.
ulers. The type column illustrates the type of the used MAC
Authors in [80] proposed a measurement based-admission
protocol such as the IEEE 802.11 to which it belongs. Service
control and a best-effort data control mechanism to guarantee
differentiation column indicates if service differentiation is
QoS for real-time transmissions in the IEEE 802.11e enhanced
supported or not. The strength and limitation columns show
distributed channel access. The data control scheme is based
respectively the major advantages and disadvantages or the
on dynamically controlling the parameters of best-effort data
proposed QoS solution. Finally, QoS metrics column identifies
by the access point. Authors proved the performance of this
different QoS parameters used to evaluate the performance of
scheme since it provides the best fairness for data trans-
the proposed algorithm.
missions among stations. The proposed measurement based-
admission control is designed for voice and video transmis-
PART III: F UTURE WORKS AND CONCLUSIONS
sions, in which stations listen to available budgets from the
access point to decide either, accept or reject a voice or video XII. OPEN ISSUES AND FUTURE WORKS
stream. Authors proved that with the proposed schemes, QoS The widespread increased number of WLANs devices, added
is deeply improved. to the rising number of multimedia application, make a new
Authors in [81] aim to provide QoS for real time traffic under challenge for users satisfaction. For, this reason, there are
high traffic load conditions. In this purpose, they proposed still many open issues and research work to be completed
two local data control schemes and an admission control in the aim to guarantee more QoS requirements. Indeed, the
scheme for ad hoc wireless networks with considering the proposed standards are still already under devel-opment, and
IEEE 802.11e MAC standard. Each node in the local data thus needs to be tested more. There are still various open
control schemes maps the measured traffic-load condition issues among them, we quote:
into backoff parameters. While, in the measurement based For IEEE 802.11ac network: studying the performance of
distributed admission control, the decision of accepting or different acknowledgement policies, and determining the best
rejecting a new flow is done by the station without the scheme for multiple downlink data frames. It is also necessary
introduction of the access point. Authors proved by simulation to redefine transmission success and failure concepts, with
that the proposed schemes provide QoS satisfaction under a considering the case where only one part of the multiple
CHARFI et al.: PHY/MAC ENHANCEMENTS AND QOS MECHANISMS FOR VERY HIGH THROUGHPUT WLANS: A SURVEY 1731
TABLE IX
C OMPARATIVE STUDY OF ALL REVIEWED WORKS
transmitted data is failed. Determining the best retransmission overall network performance. Seen its main purpose that is
scheme can be another open issue for this standard. provide more reliable transport for audio/ video streaming,
For the IEEE 802.11ad network: revising the PBSS topology, it seems important to study the performance when there
where 802.11ad network can change access points and client are concurrent real time flows which have the comparable
adapters, it might also have need of new wireless controllers. requirement in term of QoS. Another research point that
It is also possible to more study the use of TDMA technique needs a future deep study is the coexistence of unicast and
in alternation with the basic CSMA/CA, how aggregation multicast traffic.
scheme can be supported in the standard. Acknowledgement In the following, we present the main tasks that can be
mechanism can be a main task for this network, since intended to carry out for future work:
802.11ad network may support intensive applications which
have strict QoS requirements. i The co-existence between high throughput 802.11n and
For IEEE 802.11aa network: Acknowledgement mechanisms very high throughput 802.11ac/ad devices, as well apply-
for multicast transport is still an important open issue, ing the 802.11n aggregation scheme on other standards.
because their diversity and their important impact on the ii Simulation study and analysis of the upcoming 802.11
1732 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 15, NO. 4, FOURTH QUARTER 2013
TABLE X
C OMPARATIVE STUDY OF E NHANCED MAC RELATED WORKS
TABLE XI
C OMPARATIVE STUDY OF MAC SCHEDULERS RELATED WORKS
network, in order to better evaluate the proposed new maximize throughput, with guarantying fairness in band-
MAC mechanisms that support multi-user and multicast width sharing.
transport. Particularly, it will be interesting to design iv To evaluate analytically the performance of all the new
more scenarios containing different devices with different emerging proposals for high throughput WLAN, as well
QoS requirements. as new analytical models taking in consideration WLANs
iii Propose solutions to improve the network performance parameters should be developed.
such as QoS mechanisms such as admission control, and
scheduling, cross-layer with taking in consideration the XIII. C ONCLUSION
key improvements of each 802.11 specification. Thus, it This paper provides a deep study of WLANs fundamental
is necessary to propose solutions that minimize delay, concepts and mechanisms. We have considered the IEEE
CHARFI et al.: PHY/MAC ENHANCEMENTS AND QOS MECHANISMS FOR VERY HIGH THROUGHPUT WLANS: A SURVEY 1733
TABLE XII
C OMPARATIVE STUDY OF MAC SCHEDULERS RELATED WORKS
802.11e specification that aims to take in consideration service protocols has been presented viewing the relationship between
differentiation as well as IEEE 802.11n amendment which pro- them and highlighting theirs strength and drawbacks. Besides,
vides high throughput by enhancing physical and MAC layers. we have surveyed the different QoS mechanisms under recent
The main innovative concepts that have been introduced in WLAN networks. We have reviewed enhanced MAC schemes
IEEE 802.11n are aggregation and Block Ac-knowledgement for QoS support and discussed different scheduling and CAC
mechanisms. We have paid more attention for the IEEE approaches that improves QoS performance and guarantees
802.11ac and IEEE 802.11ad WLANs stan-dards which are real time requirements to support multimedia flows transport
under development and having the purpose to provide very under WLANs networks. An evaluation of these QoS mech-
high throughput. The very high throughput IEEE 802.11ac anisms was drawn in this work, by discussing the strengths
specification is an extension of the latest 802.11n using an and limitations points of each one. The upcoming standards
80MHz channel bonding technique. PHY layer enhancement (IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.11ad, and IEEE 802.11aa) could
resides in using 80MHz band and 4*4 MIMO antenna. The mean large advancements in the way consumers and business
802.11ac MAC layer supports the IEEE 802.11n aggregation access. Increased speed and guaranteed QoS requirements will
scheme with larger frame sizes, as well as using a new TXOP continue to derive the explosive growth of IEEE 802.11.
sharing technique. The IEEE very high throughput 802.11ad
amendment will support will support intensive applications
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proving Quality of Service and Assuring Fairness in WLAN Access Emna Charfi was born in MONASTIR, TUNISIA,
Networks. Mobile Computing, IEEE Trans-actions(2007), volume(6), in 1985.She received her degree in Electrical Engi-
issue(4), pages 337-350 neering and her Masters in Electronic Engineering
[68] IEEE 802.11b Supplement to 802.11-1999, . Part 11: Wireless LAN from SFAX National School of Engineering (ENIS),
Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifica- Tunisia, in 2009 and 2010, respectively. In 2010,
tions: Higher speed Physical Layer (PHY) extension in the 2.4 GHz she joined the SFAX High Institute of Electronics
band. and Communication, Tunisia, as an assistant. She
[69] IEEE 802.11a (1999), Supplement to IEEE 802.11-1999. Part 11: is a member of SFAX Laboratory of Electronics
Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) and Information Technology. Her current research
Specifications: High-Speed Physical Layer in the 5 GHz Band interests are communications, networking and are
[70] IEEE 802.11g (2003), IEEE Standard for Information technology- specially related to wireless local area network.
Specific requirements Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control
(MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) specifications-Amendment 4: Further
Higher-Speed Physical Layer Extension in the 2.4 GHz Band.
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dination Function. IEEE J. Sel.Areas Commun. (2000), volume(18), Lamia Chaari was born in SFAX, TUNISIA, in
issue(3), pages 535-547 1972. She received the engineering, PhD and HDR
[72] Hiroshi Harada ,et all. Complete Proposal for 802.11ad. degrees in Telecommunications from Sfax national
May (2010), doc IEEE 802.11-10-0498-01-00ad engineering school (ENIS) in TUNISIA. Actually
https://mentor.ieee.org/802.11/dcn/10/11-10-0498-01-00ad-complete- she is an associate professor at multimedia and
proposal-for-802-11ad-ppt.ppt informatics higher institute at SFAX University She
[73] Hayoung. Y., JongWon. K., Saturation Throughput Analysis of is also a researcher at electronic and technology
IEEE802.11e Contention-Based Channel Access. ISPACS (2005), information laboratory (LETI). Her scope of re-
pp.717-720 search are communications, networking and signal
[74] Y. Xiao, H. Li, and S. Choi, Protection and Guarantee for Voice and processing which are specially related to wireless
Video Traffic in IEEE 802.11e Wireless LANs. Proc. IEEE INFOCOM and new generation networks.
2004, pp. 2153-2163.
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tee for Multimedia Traffic in IEEE 802.11e Dis-tributed WLANs.
ACM/Springer Wireless Networks, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 141-161, Feb.,
2009 Lotfi Kamoun was born in SFAX, TUNISIA, 25
[76] H. Li, Y. Xiao, and J.Zhang, Variable Bit Rate VoIP in IEEE 802.11e January. 1957. He received the electrical engineering
Wireless LANs. IEEE Wireless Commun. Mag., Special Issue on degree from the Sciences and Techniques Faculty in
”Medium Access Control Protocols for Wireless LANs” Feb. 2008, Tunisia. Actually he is a Professor in Sfax national
volume(15), issue(1), pp. 56-62. engineering school (ENIS) in TUNISIA. His scope
[77] Y. Xiao, H. Li, and B. Li, Bandwidth Sharing Schemes for Multimedia of research are communications, networking, and
Traffic in the IEEE 802.11e Contention-based WLANs. IEEE Trans. Software radio and signal processing which are
Mobile Computing, Volume(6), issue(7), July 2007, pp. 815-831 specially related to wireless and new generation
[78] Y. Xiao, QoS Guarantee and Provisioning at the Contention-based networks.
Wireless MAC Layer in the IEEE 802.11e Wireless LANs. IEEE