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PHY/MAC enhancements and QoS mechanisms for very high throughput


WLANs: a survey

Article  in  IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials · February 2013


DOI: 10.1109/SURV.2013.013013.00084

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1714 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 15, NO. 4, FOURTH QUARTER 2013

PHY/MAC Enhancements and QoS Mechanisms for


Very High Throughput WLANs: A Survey
Emna Charfi, Lamia Chaari, and Lotfi Kamoun

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.

N OWADAYS, the IEEE 802.11 Wireless local area net-


work WLAN has experienced tremendous growth in the
last ten years with the proliferation of IEEE 802.11 devices
Even though 802.11n can deliver high throughput, only one-
to-one communication in the infrastructure mode is supported
and the network throughput is limited by the maximum per-
[68][69][70]. The first standard that was appeared in 1997 link data rate. To overcome this deficiency, a new standard
defines the Wireless LAN MAC and Physical (PHY) Layers IEEE 802.11ac [17][18][19] is under development adding
specifications that provide data transmission rates up to 1 enhancements for PHY and MAC layers. The main PHY layer
Mbps and 2 Mbps over the 2.4 GHz range. Later, IEEE enhancements are: the 80MHz bonding technique, 8*8 MIMO
802.11g was approved supporting higher speeds up to 55Mbps antenna support, and Downlink Multi-User MMIO (DL MU-
and working within the 2.4GHz range. In the IEEE 802.11 MIMO) which is used to allow multiple frames to be sent
protocol [1,2], the fundamental medium access me-chanism is from the AP to multiple receivers simultaneously through
called Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) [2-3-4] and multiple spatial streams. The main MAC layer enhancement is
the optional access mechanism is Point Coordination Function TXOP sharing [20] which is used to perform multiple down-
(PCF). DCF is based on the Carrier Sense Multiple Access link traffic streams to multiple receiver STAs simultaneously.
with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) protocol; however it IEEE802.11ac has an equivalent standard named 802.11ad
is unable to provide the required per-formance for voice and [19][21] which can transmit in the 60GHz band that provides
video applications, because it is fundamentally developed for the opportunity for much wider band channels. Over 60GHz
Manuscript received April 30, 2012; revised October 31, 2012. technology, IEEE 802.11ad network can provide solutions to
E. Charfi, L. Chaari, and L. Kamoun are with the Department of Elec- throughput intensive applications such as transfer from local
trical and Computer Engineering (ENIS) at SFAX, under the Laboratory of file transfer to HD video transfer since it will offer theoretical
Electronics and Technology Information LETI, University of SFAX (e-mail:
charfi.emna@gmail.com, lamia.chaari@tunet.com). data rate over 7Gbps. IEEE 802.11ad enhance the PHY
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/SURV.2013.013013.00084 layer by using the Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS) which
1553-877X/13/$31.00 
c 2013 IEEE
CHARFI et al.: PHY/MAC ENHANCEMENTS AND QOS MECHANISMS FOR VERY HIGH THROUGHPUT WLANS: A SURVEY 1715

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

Phases Current 802.11 TXOP principle 802.11ac TXOP sharing principle


Initiation Occurs once the EDCA rules allows access to the medium The same as the current 802.11 TXOP
Sharing phase Is not used occurs after the initiation mode
and before multiple frame transmission mode
Multiple frame Begins when an EDCAF allows an AC Begins when an EDCAF allows multiple
transmission to transmit multiple frames simultaneous frames exchange sequences

Fig. 2. Multi-user EDCA [20]

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

Fig. 3. DL MU-TXOP sharing mechanism [20]

Fig. 4. IEEE 802.11ac MAC frame format [18]

TABLE II V. V ERY H IGH THROUGHPUT WLAN MULTI - GIGABIT:


802.11 AC AGGREGATION FRAME SIZES [36] IEEE 802.11 AD
802.11n 802.11ac The wireless Gigabit Alliance is developing a standard IEEE
A-MSDU length (bytes) 7935 11426 802.11ad which can support multi-gigabit wireless communi-
A-MPDU length (bytes) 65535 1048579 cations in the 60GHz spectrum. 802.11ad is a similar technol-
ogy to 802.11ac, except it can transmit in the 60GHz band that
provides the opportunity for much wider band channels. Over
60GHz technology, 802.11ad network can provide solutions
of throughput intensive applications such as local file transfer
to High Definition (HD) video transfer since it will offer
theoretical data rate over 7Gbps as it is mentioned in the draft
off-set estimation, etc. The L-SIG field contains information [21].
about the length of the rest of the packet. New Very High
Throughput VHT fields are added by 802.11ac. VHT-SIG-A A. IEEE 802.11ad issues
contains two OFDM symbols; the first one is modulated using
BPSK, so any 802.11n user will consider a 11ac user as a IEEE 802.11ad specification includes some features to guar-
11a one, while the second symbol uses a 90 degree rotated antee best performance, minimized complexity and lower cost
BPSK to allow a VHT user to distinguish an 802.11ac device. of implementation. Moreover, the main goal of this standard
Moreover, some bits of these two symbols contain important is to enable devices to communicate with other devices that
information such as band-width mode, MCS when using a belong to legacy 802.11. The most 802.11ad features are:
single user, the number of space time streams, etc. The VHT- i All 802.11ad devices may support high data transmission
SIG-A field is forwarded by sending VHT-STF field. The rate up to 7Gbps.
subsequently 8 fields belong to VHT-LTFs which are namely ii Enables 802.11ad devices to transparently switch of an
used for estimating the MIMO channel and match-ing the active session from the 60 GHz band to the 2.4/5GHz
received signal. They are also called ”resolvable LTF” because band, and vice versa. Devices can use 60 GHz link(s)
the number of sending LTFs can exceed the number of spatial when they are operational and retain the extended range
streams per user. VHT-SIG-B, modulated BPSK, is the last and use 2.4/5 GHz link(s) when the 60 GHz links are
field in the preamble before sending the data field. It gives not operational.
information on the length of the present data in the packet. In iii Enhancement of IEEE 802.11 PHY and MAC to fulfill
addition, it provides the MCS in the case of MU-MIMO. the requirements of 802.11ad system.
CHARFI et al.: PHY/MAC ENHANCEMENTS AND QOS MECHANISMS FOR VERY HIGH THROUGHPUT WLANS: A SURVEY 1719

Fig. 6. 802.11ad MAC layer Components

coexistence between the SC and the OFDM PHYs. Therefore,


CMS is the mandatory MCS for all stations since it facilitates
multi-PHY-mode network management and further cross-PHY
Fig. 5. PBSS network [24] procedures.

D. MAC layer enhancements


iv 802.11ad may provide Enhanced co-existence among
homogeneous (legacy 802.11 and 802.11ad) systems and The MAC layer of 802.11ad specification consists of both
among heterogeneous systems such as 802.15.3c WPAN Basic MAC to keep 802.11 user experience and Enhanced
that is working at the 60GHz band. MAC to reach high throughput and to maintain directivity and
co-existence, as it is given in Fig.6.
1) Basic MAC: All Basic MAC functionalities are based on
B. Expected IEEE 802.11ad architecture legacy 802.11 and other available standards such as 802.11e
Both Base Service set BSS defined by IEEE 802.11, and Inde- and 802.11n to maintain 802.11 user experiences. There-
pendent BSS defined by IEEE 802.11ad-hoc network do not fit fore, 802.11ad supports previous MAC access mechanisms of
many issues of 802.11ad. TGad proposed a new architecture 802.11a/b/g DCF and PCF in addition to those of 802.11e
named Personnel BSS (PBSS) which is similar to IBSS expect HCF and HCCA.
it not depend on a particular device such as the AP. In this 2) Enhanced MAC: The Enhanced MAC layer of 802.11ad
architecture, one station is considered as a PBSS Central point includes new fea-tures to achieve high throughput over 1Gbps,
PCP is the only device that transmits beacon frames. The PCP to deal with directional communication, and to support co-
emulates quasi-omni-directional transmissions by successively existence with other 60GHz and QoS improvement. When
repeating directional beams multiple times over a region of looking on 802.11ad beacon frame format given by Fig.7 we
space. As an example, when a device fails to hear any beacon can further discover these enhancements [22][19]. Therefore,
frames within a single PBSS, another device could perform 802.11ad introduces new transmission periods to support very
the role of the PCP. Therefore, PCP plays has a manageable high throughput challenges. Table.3 gives the meaning of each
role to consider the directional channel access problem among phase and the corresponding enhancement.
devices, in addition to the role of the general management a) BT/Directional Association: In this period the AP/PCP
of PBSS, like QoS support and power management. Fig.5 broadcasts beacons in different directions and determines the
illustrates an example of a PBSS network. directional beacon interval appropriately, while the stations
scan received beacons on the supported directions and contin-
C. PHY layer enhancements uous with the beamforming with the AP/PCP in the A-BFT
period.
The mainly PHY layer enhancement done by 802.11ad is b) A-BFT/Beamforming: This period gives continuity to the
the combination between two types of modulation and cod- beamforming process started through the beacon transmission
ing schemes Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing during the BT. A-BFT is used to perform the initial beamform-
(OFDM) and Single carrier (SC) respectively [19]. This en- ing training between a station and the AP/PCP. Beamforming
hancement is called Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) technique employs directional antennas to reduce interference
that includes benefits of both OFDM and SC as listed below: and to allow faster data transmission over longer distances.
i OFDM allows transmissions with high data rates trans- During the beamforming process, two devices launch commu-
missions up to 7Gbps and supports communications over nications and next fine-tune their antenna settings to get better
longer distances with greater delay speeds. quality of directional communications until there is suffi-
ii SC supports transmission with data rate over 4.6Gbps cient capacity for the desired data transmission. Beamforming
and enables lower power/complexity transceivers. is well appropriate for millimeter-wave communications in
The SC and OFDM classes of data rates provide flexibility to 60GHz range since it allows many antenna elements to be
several intensive applications requiring high transmission data packed in a very small area.
rate. There are three classes of data rates from class 1 to 3 for c) AT: Announcement Time: AT performs management
up to 1.6, 3, and 7Gbps respectively. A Robust MCS called request-response frame ex-changes between AP/PCP and sta-
Common Mode Signaling (CMS) is proposed to manage the tion.
1720 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 15, NO. 4, FOURTH QUARTER 2013

Fig. 7. 802.11ad Beacon frame format [19]

Fig. 8. IEEE 802.11ad aggregation scheme [21]

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]

Fig. 12. Multicast via unicast transmission

Fig. 10. CFP frame transmission [72] A. Unicast/ Multicast services


IEEE 802.11 Audio/video streaming are transmitted as unicast
traffics based on the basic access mechanism DCF used for
coming homogeneous networks, the others stations scan CAFs
reliable unicast. Unicast traffic can be transmitted at any rate
before transmitting data during CBP. Fig.9 and Fig.10 shows
and they require positive acknowledgment from the receiver to
respectively the mutual interference and the CFP frame.
guarantee data delivery. Nevertheless it is only realistic for low
g) Co-existence among heterogeneous systems: Since there
data rate and reduced number of stations given that increased
are two 60Ghz unlicensed wireless system specifications
number of receiving stations leads to increase bandwidth and
802.15.3c and 802.11ad, there is a need for a mechanism
delay. Furthermore, IEEE 802.11 access mechanism is used
to facilitate co-existence between them. The BSSs in the
also for multicast transmission where data frames include
vicinity create a clear channel during a quiet period to detect
a multicast address by defining a specific mechanism to
other 60GHz systems operating in the same channels, as it is
broadcast them as it is shown in Fig.12. In this case, only the
illustrated in Fig.11. The quiet periods scheduled by different
basic access procedure is maintained, while RTS/CTS are not
BSSs partially align to prevent the signal from adjacent BSS
performed and feedback mechanism is not needed. Thus, there
interfering the detection of other systems.
no data delivery guarantees and there is a high probability to
VI. IEEE 802.11 AA MAC ACCESS MECHANISMS lose frames in addition to performance decreasing and reduced
speed. This is caused by the fact that all multicast addresses
The latest 802.11e EDCA offers differentiation and prioriti- must be transmitted at one of the rates included in the BSS
zation between four different traffics classes. However, these which are fixed by the AP at minimum values allowing it to
access mechanisms don’t consider unicast and multi-cast trans- join the BSS.
mission. Therefore this approach fails to provide satisfaction
for video flows since it defines only one queue for video traffic
whereas different codec not provide equal frames regardless B. Stream classification Service (SCS)
that there are some of them more important than others. In 802.11aa proposes new prioritization mechanism called SCS
order to provide differentiation between different video flows, by extending the differentiation concept of 802.11e EDCA
802.11aa extended the existing EDCA prioritized mechanism. access mechanism. While EDCA is based on different access
The main 802.11aa MAC enhancements are: Stream Classi- categories ACs prioritized according to their contention pa-
fication Service (SCS) and GroupCast with Retries (GCR) rameters such as AIFS, CW and TXOP durations, 802.11aa
service. suggested an Intra- access category prioritization to enhance
1722 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 15, NO. 4, FOURTH QUARTER 2013

multicast groupcast member. Frames transmitted to multicast


addresses are individually transmitted to each of the associated
STAs belonging to the multicast group. Those frames will be
retransmitted until receiving an acknowledgement from the
AP, and they will be stopped when the retransmission limit
is achieved. Although this mechanism guarantees a reliable
transport to multicast traffic like unicast transmissions, it has
large scalability when using a high number of the multicast
group.
3) GCR Block Ack: This mechanism is considered as an
extension of the Block Ack concept already defined in latest
standards 802.11e and 802.11n. When using this policy, the
AP transmits a Block Ack Request BAR frame to targeted
stations or recipients. This happens when one sending station
Fig. 13. Stream classification service over IEEE 802.11aa [25] transmits a burst of data frames and asks then the receiving
station about an ACK frame. When the AP receives the BA
from the asked station, it sends a further BAR frame to a
the granularity of the service differentiation. specially between remainder station of the same group of receiving station. The
unicast and multicast traffic. Through SCS, two additional receiver station sends an ACK frame only when it is requested
queues are added within the existing EDCA access categories by a BAR frame. Therefore, this mechanism offers the best
in order to provide prioritization within both audio and video reliability then others ACK policies.
streaming. The two proposed queues proposed by this service
are: one additional queue for audio (AAC-VO) and another
one for video (AAC-VI) as it illustrated by Fig.13 In addition D. OBSS management
to this proposed intra AC prioritization, packets are tagged
with their drop eligibility indicator DEI bit, which identifies a The 802.11aa specification provides mechanisms to manage
different maximum number of (short or long) retries when the the occurrence of the different BSSs existing in the same
bit is set. The STA uses the DEI subfield to indicate that the radio range of each other, namely Overlapping BSS (OBSS).
corresponding MSDU or fragment is eligible for discarding When considering the OBSS, different APs are coordinated
if there are not enough resources at the destination STA. The and therefore not damage the quality of service of multimedia
SCS service requires some modifications to the MAC frame applications even if there are interfering systems. The main
header since it uses 6 MAC queues instead of 4 queues in purpose of including the OBSS management is to offer the
EDCA mechanism. The major drawback of the introduced AP more suggestions for smart channel selection, in addition
SCS service does not modify the standard MAC behavior to enabling the management of scheduled transmission oppor-
seeing that it is based on the existing EDCA mechanism. Thus, tunities between interfering WLANs. The OBSS management
it is extremely unreliable for multicast transmissions, and also is supported by a set of new control messages and new
inefficient for unicast transmissions to a moderate number of mechanisms. The first new set is defined to avoid interferences
receivers (as explained in the next session). and to develop the wireless efficiency when the AP uses
EDCA-AC or HCCA mechanisms. It is accomplished by the
C. GroupCast with Retries service (GCR) inclusion of QoS Load QLoad which is considered as an AP’s
reporting message to provide information to adjacent APs. The
Multicast transmissions over 802.11WLANs still always have
latter new set is supported by the inclusion of new mechanisms
some inefficiency such as the unreliability caused by the
to schedule and broadcast transmission opportunities between
lack of acknowledgement frames; in addition to the high
APs to get better performance. Furthermore they are recom-
inefficiency caused by low modulation coding scheme. In
mended for channel selection and load sharing.
order to provide a robust and reliable multicast audio/video
streaming, 802.11aa specifies new Acknowledgement (ACK)
policy for the 802.11 which are: GCR Unsolicited Retry, VII. R ECENT RELATED WORKS
Direct Multicast Service DMS, and GCR Block ACK. Fig.14
illustrates an example of frame exchange in each case. This section includes an overview of the recent existing
1) GCR Unsolicited retry: In this scheme multicast frames are literature on upcoming WLANs specifications. There are many
transmitted several times without waiting any acknowledgment research works discussed enhancements introduced by the
after each transmission. The number of retransmissions N next generation wireless networks. In [26], authors give an
should not exceed a threshold fixed by the sending station. overview about the proposed amendments of 802.11 fam-
Although this mechanism improves the reliability by increas- ily as well as those under development, authors highlight
ing the delivery probability, it leads to increasing the overhead the considering proposed extensions adopted to achieve best
mainly when the value of N is high, and becomes useless when performance. Authors in [19] focus on the upcoming IEEE
the channel quality is good. Gigabit WLANs amendments 802.11ac and 802.11ad and
2) Directed Multicast Service (DMS): In this mechanism each show different MAC and PHY enhancements of these two
multicast frame is transmitted in a unicast mode to each standards.
CHARFI et al.: PHY/MAC ENHANCEMENTS AND QOS MECHANISMS FOR VERY HIGH THROUGHPUT WLANS: A SURVEY 1723

Fig. 14. Available mechanisms with the Service GCR [25]

TABLE III
C OMPARATIVE STUDY OF 802.11 E RELATED WORKS

Item Strengths Limitations


[78] Highlight the QoS issues such as guaranteeing QoS and allocating bandwidth. None
Survey of QoS mechanism: admission control, data control, etc
[79] Good designing of priority parameters Simulations are done
Design analytical model for saturation throughput only for 802.11a network
Provide new accurate delay model
[83] Present the IEEE 802.11e MAC layer: HCF and EDCA None
Good reference for the enhancements of IEEE 802.11e
[86] Develop an analytical model for throughput and delay under Complexity of analytical
IEEE 802.11e EDCA Uses the three dimensional markov chain model

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

Item Strengths Limitations


[27] Evaluate the performance of A-MSDU and A-MPDU, Not consider the service
and two-level of aggregation scheme differentiation
[28] Develop an analytical model for calculating throughput between Study is done only for
an access point and one station. UDP flows
Evaluation the performance of aggregation scheme. Not considering different classes
[29] Study the impact of headers on frame aggregation. Is designed only for small
Introduce a new aggregation scheme that outperform headers problem packets sizes such as VoIP
[30] Develop an analytical model for muticast transport of aggregated The model is only validated
frames. analytically
[31] Study the Aggregation with fragment retransmission when the Complexity to implement
aggregated frame is too large
[32] Develop an analytical model for estimating delay for 802.11n Limited to the saturation case
aggregated packets under saturated condition
[84] Proposed MAC enhancement such as aggregation None
Classification of aggregation mechanisms according to the network architecture
[85] propose different MAC schemes for IEEE 802.11n such as Direct Link Protocol, None
Block Acknowledgement, Concatenation, etc

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

Item Strengths Limitations


[20] Focus on 802.11ac MAC enhancements. Not validate the performance
Gives a consistent explanation of the TXOP sharing mechanism via simulations
[35] Extend the 802.11n 40MHz to the 802.11ac 80MHz wide channel and study Complexity
the static and dynamic channel access schemes.
[36] Develop an analytical model for 802.11ac when using 802.11n aggregation scheme Only one AC is used
[37] Propose an effective MAC protection mechanism to overcome the hidden node None
problem located in the non-primary channel
[38] Evaluate the CSMA/CA based DL MU-MIMO protocol with three different Not consider aggregation in
response mechanisms. addition to CSMA/CA

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

Item Strengths Limitations


[22] Give an overview of the current IEEE 802.11ad task group activities, No simulations for evaluation
and the expected enhancements to 802.11. the performance
[39] Settle on MCS schemes for realistic system. Adopted only for mmWave
The proposed design support mmWave system of 802.11ad 60Ghz network applications
[24] Evaluated the performance of 802.11ad MAC and PHY layers enhancements Adopted only for mmWave
by analyzing the theoretical MAC throughput applications
[40] Give a comparative study between three types of beamforming and demonstrate None
that hybrid beamforming offers better performance at a reasonable cost.
[23] Evaluate by simulations the performance of 802.11ad network over 60GH band Not consider directional antenna
and beamforming

TABLE VII
C OMPARATIVE STUDY OF 802.11 AA RELATED WORKS

Item Strengths Limitations


[30] Introduce the requirements for reliable multicast transmission, as well as three Not consider different
acknowledgements policies codec video
[41] Proposed new multicast protocol based on a leader selection and NAK frames The used MAC protocol
that increases efficiency is of 802.11g
[42] Evaluate the performance of RPMP protocol in heavy loaded WLAN None
[43] Proposed NACK LBP as a new scheme for the IEEE 802.11aa task group TGaa. None
[44] Prove that all GCR mechanisms improve reliability beyond 90% under non saturation Limited to non-saturated
conditions. conditions

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

Fig. 15. ALL expected MAC enhancements


TABLE VIII
C OMPARATIVE STUDY OF 802.11 E RELATED WORKS

Item 802.11n 802.11ac 802.11ad 802.11aa


Release 2009 Under development Under development 2012
Channel 20/40 MHz 20/40/80/160 MHz 2140 MHz –
Data rate 600 Mbps 1Gbps 7Gbps –
MIMO stream 4∗4 8∗8 – –
MAC Aggregation : A-MSDU Enhanced aggregation Enhanced aggregation for video flows: SCS: stream classification
mechanisms and A-MPDU A-MSDU and A-MPDU VA-MSDU (largest sizes) service
Block acknowledgement (larger sizes) Beamforming Directional antenna
TXOP sharing GCR: Groupcast with reties
PHY layer BPSK,QPSK, BPSK, QPSK SC and OFDM with —
(modulation) 16/ 64QAM 16/64 256 QAM common preamble and coding
Purpose High throughput Very high Very High at 60GHz Robust streaming for
600Mbps throughput 1Gbps throughput 6Gbps audio/video transport streams

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

Fig. 16. In and Out-of traffic QoS mechanisms

control decisions are made based on the continuously mea-


sured network conditions such as throughput and delay. The
model-based schemes [49][50][51][52] are based on analytical
models and metrics to evaluate the status of the network. Both
these two categories are used for Hybrid [53][54][55] based
admission control.

XI. R EVIEW OF Q O S MECHANISMS IN RECENT WLAN S


NETWORKS
A. Enhanced MAC layer for QoS support
Although collective efforts of different layers of WLAN proto-
col stack for QoS provisioning, MAC layer is the most impor-
tant among them since it is responsible of the medium sharing
and supporting reliable communications. Moreover, the MAC
layer handles the additional challenges of the WLANs such as
service differentiation, minimum delay, fairness in bandwidth Fig. 17. QoS architecture in WLAN with infrastructure topology
allocation, and guarantying required performance for real time
applications. Hence, the MAC layer plays a key part for application, for example the well known Bianchi model cannot
QoS provisioning and dominates the performance of the QoS be used for non real-time traffic since it is limited to the satu-
support and there are many works by the literature that deal ration state. To overcome this deficiency, authors proposed an
with QoS support at the MAC layer. analytical model considering some assumptions such as a fixed
Authors in [56] interested on the negative effect of the IEEE number of backoff stages after which the model b gives up,
802.11n aggregation mechanism in term of delay multimedia an infinite number of terminals, and ideal channel condition.
applications in a WLAN. The main motivation of their work Namely, the proposed model is an extension of Bianchi’s [71]
is that with aggregation schemes, larger packet are composed model, with using a multiplicative decrease of the contention
and then increasing the payload size. However, transmitting windows size in case of successful transmission, in addition to
large packets fails when we have delay constraints of real-time considering the bandwidth and time required and the possible
packets. To increase the network efficiency, authors proposed time out for lost packets. Simulations proved the performance
three methods based on packets aggregation and cooperation of the developed model with maintaining the quality of service
among nodes. These methods use capture effect, power control for non real-time application and improving the capacity and
scheme and directionality of antenna to let concurrent packet throughput with respecting fairness and decreasing collision
transmissions in a WLAN. They proved by simulations that frequency.
the proposed schemes increase the system throughput greatly, Authors in [59] developed an enhanced MAC layer that
in addition to improving VoIP performance. includes the IEEE 802.11n aggregation scheme and the IEEE
In [57] authors focused also on inefficiencies of the IEEE 802.11 EDCA service differentiation in order to support strict
802.11n aggregation schemes. They justified the negative QoS requirements of some applications. The simulation results
impact of this mechanism on some applications by causing of modified MAC illustrated that QoS metric can be improved
more headers and delay particularly when aggregating frames like delay and throughput. Furthermore, they proved that when
of small payloads. Therefore, authors proposed a new aggre- enforcing strict priorities collisions are reduced to zero and the
gation scheme called mA-MSDU to reduce the A-MSDU and waiting time can be minimized for typical usage scenarios.
A-MPDU header’s overhead and to support applications with Authors in [60] focused on multi-player online gaming ap-
small frame size such as VoIP. With mA-MSDU aggregation plication which is becoming one of the most popular real-
scheme, small headers are introduced and error control is time applications on the internet. Namely, they studied if
enabled over the aggregated MSDUs. Authors proved by the IEEE 802.11n MAC layer mechanisms can improve QoS
simulation the performance of this scheme when using packets of real-time online games. The proved by simulation the
with small sizes. performance of 802.11n aggregation, transmission opportunity,
In [58] authors focused on the limitation of the existing block acknowledgement, and reverse direction protocol can
analytical models of the MAC layer that only interested on considerably improve QoS performance. TXOP mechanism
how improving the QoS of global wireless networks neglecting improves the networking fairness of real-time online games,
the varied requirements of each flow. Generally, different and with reverse direction mechanism, MOS (Mean Option
existing models don’t guarantee the QoS requirements of each Score) is further enhanced, aggregation and TXOP reduce
CHARFI et al.: PHY/MAC ENHANCEMENTS AND QOS MECHANISMS FOR VERY HIGH THROUGHPUT WLANS: A SURVEY 1729

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

Item 802.11 parameters QoS aspects supported traffic S.VHT


[56] Range: Distance between AP and node and Maximize the number of VoIP calls VoIP traffic Yes
802.11n aggregation Maximize the network throughput
[57] Headers of aggregated frames in 802.11n Minimize the impact of headers to data Small packet sizes Yes
ratio of aggregation small MSDUs (VoIP)
[58] Contention Window size Maximize the network throughput Non-real time traffic No
Fixed number of backoff stage Maximize the system capacity
Decrease collisions
[59] EDCA differentiation parameters Maximize throughput Real time traffics Yes
802.11n aggregation Reduce delay
Reduce collisions
[60] 802.11n aggregation, block acknowledgement, Evaluate the MOS (mean opinion score) Real time First Person No
TXOP, and reverse direction mechanism under different combinations of 802.11n Shooter (FPS) online
mechanisms games
[61] TXOP when the length of aggregated frame increases: Best effort and real Yes
Aggregation Maximize the network capacity Minimize delay time traffic
Reduce packet loss
[62] IEEE 802.11e differentiation parameters: Maximize throughput VoIP traffic No
CW, AIFS, TXOP Minimize packet dropped
[63] DCF and PCF mechanisms Maximize network throughput Best effort traffic No
Minimize medium delay
[64] 802.11e EDCA and HCCA, TXOP Minimize delay Audio traffic No
MPEG4 video traffic
[65] 802.11n aggregation Minimize delay Best effort traffic Yes
[66] 802.11e differentiation parameters Reduce delay for real time traffic Real and non real time No
Guarantee fairness for non real time traffic traffic
[67] 802.11e differentiation parameters Minimize delay 802.11e classes No
Minimize packet loss
[74] EDCA differentiation parameters Protect high priority traffics Voice and video No
Increase channel utilization
[77] Bandwidth allocation Bandwidth allocation Best effort, voice, No
EDCA video, data
[75] EDCA differentiation parameters Protection of high priority traffic Voice/ video No
[76] EDCA differentiation parameters TXOP Satisfy QoS requirements for VBR VoIP VBR VoIP No
TBT interval (Transmission budget Threshold) traffic
[80] EDCA differentiation parameters Guaranteeing QoS and maintaining a good Data traffic No
TXOP period utilization Voice and Video
[81] EDCA differentiation parameters Improve performance of real time flows Voice, video, and data No
TXOP period Improve throughput of voice and video
[82] EDCA differentiation parameters Satisfy QoS requirement of video flows in term Video flows No
TBT interval (Transmission budget Threshold) of delay, throughput

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

type Item MAC S.D. Stength limitation QoS metrics


Enhanced [56] 802.11n No Improve system throughput High Complexity Throughput
MAC aggregation Increasing the number of VoIP calls Using a cross-layer design delay
Adopted for High throughput networks between PHY/MAC layers Network capacity
[57] 802.11n No reduce headers overhead Not support different applications None
aggregation efficient when transmitting small It is only efficient for services
packets such as VoIP with small packets
[58] 802.11 No Develop a new analytical model based Limited to saturation sate Throughput
DCF on Bianchi’s chain Dedicated for only non-real time Network capacity
Maintain QoS for non-real time services flows.
[59] 802.11n Yes Improve throughput Complexity of the used Systemclick Throughput
aggregation Minimize delay model Delay
EDCA Reduce collisions Adopted for 802.11adhoc net-works
[60] 802.11n No Improve fairness, Limited to multi-player online Delay
aggregation Reduce congestion gaming application
Exploit all 802.11n mechanisms
[61] 802.11n Yes Improve capacity for real-time services Complexity to implement since it Delay
aggregation Enhance channel utilization includes admission control, TXOP Network Capacity
EDCA Reduce delay for best-effort traffic calculator, scheduler Packet loss
[77] 802.11e Yes Satisfaction of QoS in contention based Complexity None
EDCA channel No analytic support

TABLE XI
C OMPARATIVE STUDY OF MAC SCHEDULERS RELATED WORKS

type Item MAC S.D. Stength limitation QoS metrics


MAC [62] 802.11e Yes Provide differentiation among flows Adopted for 802.11ad hoc network, Network capacity
schedulers EDCA which belong to the same AC. Efficiency is illustrated only for delay
Increase the number of calls for VoIP. VoIP traffic Network capacity
Reduce the number of dropped packets
[63] 802.11 No Simple Not support differentiation Throughput
DCF Improve efficiency for DCF and PCF service, and traffic prioritization Delay
Reduce collision
[64] 802.11e Yes Provide fairness in bandwidth sharing Complexity of the discrete delay
Depend on the queue length of the mathematical model
packet and TXOP period
Offers better QoS for real-time flows
[65] 802.11n No Avoid the tradeoff between throughput Not consider service differentiation Delay
aggregation and delay when aggregating large packets Throughput
[66] 802.11e Yes Provide QoS requirements for non-real High complexity throughput
MAC and real time traffics in terms of delay delay
and throughput
[67] 802.11e Yes Efficient in term of queuing delay and Complexity Delay
MAC packet loss rate Uses a cross layer design between jitter
Provide fair channel sharing PHY and MAC layer packet loss
Reduce delay and jitter

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

type Item MAC S.D. Stength limitation QoS metrics


Call [74] 802.11e Yes Protect and guarantee the existing voice Too many best effort data throughput
admission EDCF and video flows transmissions can degrade the delay
control Satisfy QoS requirements for different existing QoS flows Network capacity
mechanisms applications
[75] 802.11e Yes Protect and guarantee the existing voice Performance oscillation and throughput
EDCA and video flows lack of direct QoS relationship Delay
Satisfy QoS requirements for different with applications Number of collisions
applications
[76] 802.11e No Provide satisfactory solution to QoS Complexity of implementation delay
EDCA for VBR VoIP throughput
[80] 802.11e No Good differentiation among different Not show the effect of the QoS delay
access categories parameters on the performance Throughput
Good fairness among real time streams
Guaranteeing video and voice throughputs
and delays via a little degraded data
throughput and delays.
[81] 802.11e Yes Provide QoS requirements especially for High complexity Throughput
EDCA video flows Limited to one hop ad-hoc Delay
Delay of video flows is improved with wireless networks
local data control
[82] 802.11e Yes Total throughput is improved Total throughput is improved Delay
Flows in EDCA are protected traffic load is not very heavy Throughput
Damping factor

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.
[71] Bianchi, G.,Performance Analysis of the IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coor-
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.
[75] Y. Xiao, H. Li, and S. Choi, Two-Level Protection and Guaran-
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

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