=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1689/paper7
|storemode=property
|title=Performance Study of Frame Aggregation Mechanisms in the New Generation WiFi
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1689/paper7.pdf
|volume=Vol-1689
|authors=Mohand Yazid,Louiza Bouallouche-Medjkoune,Djamil Aïssani
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/vecos/YazidBA16
}}
==Performance Study of Frame Aggregation Mechanisms in the New Generation WiFi ==
Performance Study of Frame Aggregation Mechanisms in the New Generation WiFi Mohand Yazid Louiza Medjkoune-Bouallouche Djamil Aı̈ssani Research Unit LaMOS Research Unit LaMOS Research Unit LaMOS Faculty of Exact Sciences Faculty of Exact Sciences Faculty of Exact Sciences University of Bejaia University of Bejaia University of Bejaia 06000 Bejaia, Algeria 06000 Bejaia, Algeria 06000 Bejaia, Algeria yazid.mohand@gmail.Com louiza medjkoune@yahoo.fr lamos bejaia@hotmail.com The new generation WiFi (Widely Fidelity), which is called 802.11ac, has the goal of reaching at least 1 Gbps on bands below 6 GHz. This is why, the standard has been extended with new features at both PHYsical (PHY) and Medium Access Control (MAC) layers level. One of the key features of MAC layer is the ability of aggregating frames in order to reduce temporal overheads that significantly harm the performance of 802.11 networks. Three forms of aggregation exist, namely Aggregate MAC Service Data Unit (A-MSDU), Aggregate MAC Protocol Data Unit (A-MPDU) and hybrid A-MSDU/A-MPDU Aggregation (A-hybrid). In this paper, we study the impact of Frame Aggregation Mechanisms (FAMs) for improving the overall throughput of 802.11ac networks. Furthermore, we highlight the need of PHY/MAC cross-layer communications for optimizing the wireless bandwidth utilization. Simulation results demonstrate the gains offered by the FAMs. IEEE 802.11ac, Frame Aggregation Mechanisms, Physical Data Rates, Simulation and Performance Study. 1. INTRODUCTION Several key enhancements have been proposed to both the PHY and MAC layers of the IEEE 802.11ac More than any time ever before, today technology standard in order to reach gigabit throughput rates has a significant impact on people’s lives. The pro- (Charfi et al. (2013)). On the one hand, substantial liferation of slim, mobile, and portable devices such modifications are required at the PHY layer in order as notebooks, ultrabooks, tablets, and smartphones to increase the PHY data rates (Ismail el. (2013)). is a clear testament to the importance of wireless On the other hand, the IEEE 802.11ac standard communications in modern society (Cordeiro et al. specifies the use of different Frame Aggregation (2013)). The most notable example of wireless sys- Mechanisms (FAMs) at the MAC layer level in tems with data rates greater than 1 Gbps, includes order to increase the channel utilization and MAC the IEEE 802.11ac amendment to the base IEEE efficiency (Charfi et al. (2012)). The IEEE 802.11ac 802.11 standard (IEEE 802.11ac Standard (2013)). standard boasts better MAC layer efficiency through Several companies have announced products imple- innovative mechanisms such as Frame Aggregation menting this technology, with a few of those prod- (FA) and Block Acknowledgment (ACK) (Yazid et al. ucts already available, or soon to be available, to (2015)). Three forms of aggregation exist, namely: consumers (Cordeiro et al. (2013)). The data rates Aggregate MAC Service Data Unit (A-MSDU), provided by IEEE 802.11ac can meet the needs of Aggregate MAC Protocol Data Unit (A-MPDU) and many applications, with replacement of Wired Digital hybrid A-MSDU/A-MPDU Aggregation (A-hybrid). Interface (WDI) cables arguably the most promi- These involve aggregating several MPDU/MSDU nent new use of this technology. To this end, the frames (called sub-frames) into one larger frame, IEEE 802.11ac Task Group (TGac) is working on an and as a result only require a single MAC layer amendment that has the goal of reaching maximum header for it to be accepted by the PHY layer aggregate network throughputs of at least 1 Gbps (Al-Adhami et al. (2012)). Thus, the laborious on bands below 6 GHz (Yazid et al. (2014)). Due to channel access of the Carrier Sense Multiple Access the significant rate increase achieved by 802.11ac, with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) protocol is the term Very High Throughput (VHT) is also used considerably reduced by the sharing of the PHY in reference to this new amendment (Bejarano et al. header and channel access mechanism among the (2013)). MPDUs of the A-MPDU. Hence, the MAC layer Performance Study of Frame Aggregation Mechanisms Yazid • Bouallouche-Medjkoune • Aı̈ssani efficiency is considerably improved (Redieteab et al. followed by the MSDU arrived from the Logical Link (2012)). Control (LLC) layer and 0-3 bytes of padding. A major drawback of using A-MSDU is under error- The main contribution of this paper is to analyze prone channels. By compressing all MSDUs into a the potential benefits in terms of MAC throughput single MPDU with a single Frame Check Sequence gains of IEEE 802.11ac WLANs over various (FCS), for any MSDUs that are corrupted, the entire Frame Aggregation Mechanisms and practical PHY A-MSDU must be retransmitted (Skordoulis et al. data rates. In the same way, we highlight the (2008)). need to cross-layer communications between the PHY and MAC layers in order to increase the efficiency of the wireless channel utilization. In addition, we demonstrate that hybrid A-MSDU/A- MPDU aggregation yields the best throughput for the IEEE 802.11ac WLANs. The reminder of this paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents the different mechanisms of Frame Aggregation introduced in the IEEE 802.11ac standard. Section 3 gives a review of existing studies on Frame Aggregation Mechanisms. Simulation Figure 1: Aggregate MSDU. results and performance analysis are presented in Section 4. Finally, our main conclusions are 2.2. Aggregate MPDU summarized in Section 5. The concept of A-MPDU aggregation is to join multiple MPDUs with a single leading PHY header. 2. FRAME AGGREGATION MECHANISMS A key difference from A-MSDU aggregation is that A- There are three methods available to perform frame MPDU operates after the MAC header encapsulation aggregation: Aggregate MAC Service Data Unit (A- process. The utmost number of MPDUs that it can MSDU), Aggregate MAC Protocol Data Unit (A- hold is 64 because a Block ACK bitmap field is 128 MPDU) and hybrid A-MSDU/A-MPDU Aggregation bytes in length, where each MPDU is mapped using (A-hybrid) (Charfi et al. (2012)). The main distinction two bytes (Charfi et al. (2012)). The basic structure between an MSDU and an MPDU is that the former is shown in Figure 2. corresponds to the information that is imported to or exported from the upper part of the MAC layer A set of fields, known as MPDU header is inserted from or to the higher layers, respectively. Whereas, before each MPDU and padding bits varied from 0-3 the latter relates to the information that is exchanged bytes are added at the tail. The basic operation of the from or to the PHY layer by the lower part of the MAC MPDU header is to define the MPDU position and layer. Aggregate exchange sequences are made length inside the A-MPDU. The Cyclic Redundancy possible with a protocol that acknowledges multiple Check (CRC) field in the MPDU header is used to MPDUs with a single Block ACK (BA) in response verify the authenticity of the 16 preceding bits. After to a Block ACK Request (BAR) (Skordoulis et al. the A-MPDU is received, a de-aggregation process (2008)). is initiates. First it checks the MPDU header for any errors based on the CRC value. If it is correct, the 2.1. Aggregate MSDU MPDU is extracted, and it continues with the next MPDU till it reaches the end of the PHY Service The principle of the A-MSDU is to allow multiple Data Unit (PSDU). Otherwise, it checks every four MSDUs sent to the same receiver to be concate- bytes until it locates a valid MPDU header or the end nated in a single MPDU. This definitively improves of the PSDU. The delimiter has a unique pattern to the efficiency of the MAC layer, specifically when assist the de-aggregation process while scanning for there are many small MSDUs. For an A-MSDU to be MPDU header (Skordoulis et al. (2008)). formed, a layer at the top of the MAC receives and buffers multiple MSDUs. The A-MSDU is completed 2.3. Hybrid A-MSDU/A-MPDU Aggregation when the size of the waiting MSDUs reaches the maximal A-MSDU threshold (Charfi et al. (2013)). The hybrid aggregation as shown in Figure 3 comprises a blend of A-MSDU and A-MPDU over In Figure 1, we describe a simple structure of an A- two stages. In the first stage, MSDUs received MSDU. Each MSDU consists of a MSDU header, by MAC from the upper layer are buffered for a which contains the Destination Address (DA), the short time until A-MSDUs are formed according to Sender Address (SA) and the length of the MSDU, their traffic identifier, destination, source, and the 2 Performance Study of Frame Aggregation Mechanisms Yazid • Bouallouche-Medjkoune • Aı̈ssani et al. (Cha et al. (2012)) compared the performance of the two down-link user multiplexing schemes: MU- MIMO and frame aggregation in IEEE 802.11ac. The authors showed that, if each user’s data stream has a similar length, the MU-MIMO scheme yields better average throughput. Whereas, if each user’s data stream has a different length, the frame aggregation scheme outperforms the MU-MIMO scheme in terms of average throughput. Chung et al. (Chung et al. (2013)) proposed an aggregated MPDU using fragmented MPDUs with a compressed Block ACK Figure 2: Aggregate MPDU. mechanism for use in IEEE 802.11ac MU-MIMO transmission. The authors showed that, by allowing maximum size of A-MSDU. The complete A-MSDUs the use of fragmentation with the A-MPDU, the waste and other non-aggregate MSDUs then enter the of medium resources in terms of meaningless A- second stage to form an A-MPDU. Only complete MPDU padding can be eliminated. A-MSDUs and MSDUs, not the fragments of A- It is clear that, the frame aggregation and block MSDUs or MSDUs, could be contained in an A- acknowledgement are the most important MAC MPDU. The entire aggregation scheme completes mechanisms proposed in the new generation IEEE when A-MPDU is created (Wang et al. (2009)). 802.11ac WLANs standard for achieving a very high throughput. This is due to their efficiency of reducing the temporal overheads caused mainly by the PHY and MAC headers, inter-frame spacing, backoff timer and frame ACK. However, non of the existing studies has been devoted to evaluate the performance level and quantify the throughput gains offered by the frame aggregation mechanisms. This is why, we dedicate this work to separately study how each frame aggregation mechanism allows increasing the overall throughput in an IEEE 802.11ac WLAN. In the same way, we identify, for the first time in the literature, some issues risen to the use Figure 3: Hybrid A-MSDU/A-MPDU aggregation. of frame aggregation mechanisms with practical physical data rates. These drawbacks should be taken into account, in order to enhance the IEEE 3. RELATED WORKS AND MOTIVATIONS 802.11ac WLAN. The Frame Aggregation Mechanisms, which are designed for improving channel utilization and MAC 4. SIMULATION RESULTS AND ANALYSIS efficiency have received a large interest by the research community. In the field, Redieteab et al. In this section, we analyze the impact of the MAC (Redieteab et al. (2010)) proposed a new cross- layer to increase the overall throughput in the VHT layer aggregation scheme that increases throughput IEEE 802.11ac WLAN. Especially, we study how as a compromise between robustness to collisions the frame aggregation mechanisms allow enhancing and channel diversity exploitation in a WLAN the utilization of the scarce wireless bandwidth and multichannel context. Ong et al. (Ong et al. (2011)) improving the achievable throughput in an IEEE compared the MAC performance between 802.11ac 802.11ac WLAN. Furthermore, we highlight the need and 802.11n over three different frame aggregation to cross-layer communications between the PHY mechanisms, and indicated that 802.11ac with a and MAC layers to accommodate the use of the configuration of 80 MHz and single spatial streams different frame aggregation mechanisms according outperforms 802.11n with a configuration of 40 MHz to the offered physical data rates. and two spatial streams in terms of throughput by 28%. Bellalta et al. (Bellalta et al. (2012)) proposed In order to analyze the gains of the different frame and evaluated a simple reference scheme covering aggregation mechanisms over several physical data the fundamental properties of frame aggregation rates in an IEEE 802.11ac WLAN, we have and MU-MIMO transmission in order to demonstrate implemented the IEEE 802.11ac frame aggregation that the combination of both techniques is able to mechanisms in a custom-made simulator written in significantly improve the system performance. Cha C++ programming language under Linux operating 3 Performance Study of Frame Aggregation Mechanisms Yazid • Bouallouche-Medjkoune • Aı̈ssani system. The values of parameters used to obtain the A-MSDU/A-MPDU aggregation. This scheme simulation results are given in Table 1. allows the same maximum number of MPDUs as in A-MPDU aggregation. However, in Table 1: 802.11ac PHY and MAC Parameters. the hybrid aggregation, a single MPDU can encapsulate several MSDUs, conditioned by Parameter Numerical value the size of MPDU which does not exceed 4095 Signal propagation delay 1 µs bytes. DIFS 34 µs SIFS 16 µs • Finally, we give a comparative study between Slot time 9 µs the maximum throughput reached with the Minimum PHY hdr time 40 µs different frame aggregation mechanisms in Maximum PHY hdr time 68 µs an IEEE 802.11ac WLAN according to the Minimum CW 32 network size. Maximum CW 1024 Maximum MAC hdr size 36 bytes Maximum MPDU size 11454 bytes ACK length 14 bytes Block-ACK length 64 bytes Maximum MSDU size 2304 bytes The goal of the following obtained simulation results is to show the relation existing between the data rates (offered by the PHY layer) and frame aggregation mechanisms (available at MAC layer level), allowing an efficient use of the scarce Figure 4: Bandwidth utilization versus data rate. wireless bandwidth while improving the achievable throughput in an IEEE 802.11ac WLAN. Therefore, In Figure 4, we study the bandwidth utilization our analysis is organized as follows: according to the physical data rate without using • Firstly, we study the bandwidth utilization the frame aggregation. Therefore, we have used rate according to various physical data a middle MPDU length (1000 bytes), an average rates without applying frame aggregation. network size (15 stations), and we have varied the The objective of this study is to show physical data rate from 50 Mbps to 300 Mbps. that, increasing the physical data rate does We observe from the Figure 4 that, the bandwidth not increase systematically the bandwidth utilization is decreasing with the increase of physical utilization. So, the frame aggregation is data rate; the greater the used physical data rate, required for increasing the bandwidth utilization the lower the bandwidth utilization rate. We note and MAC efficiency. that, with a physical data rate of 54 Mbps, the bandwidth utilization rate is 37%. The bandwidth • Secondly, we evaluate the first existing frame utilization decreases to 12%, when the physical data aggregation scheme, which is the A-MSDU rate reaches 300 Mbps. This is mainly due to the aggregation. So, we quantify the achievable PHY and MAC headers which harm the bandwidth throughput with the A-MSDU aggregation utilization and the achievable throughput of IEEE scheme according to the A-MSDU length. With 802.11 WLANs. By enabling new features (like wider the A-MSDU aggregation, we already note the channels and MU-MIMO transmission) at the PHY benefit gain of the frame aggregation in an layer, it is true that, the physical data rate is highly IEEE 802.11ac WLAN. increased. However, as we have shown in Figure 4, the channel bandwidth is less and less utilized. • Thirdly, we evaluate the second frame aggre- This can be explained by the fact that the physical gation scheme, which is the A-MPDU aggre- data rates are only used to transmit the payload gation. This scheme offers greater length to of the 802.11 frame (the useful data). However, the aggregated frame, up to 64 MPDUs in the the PHY and MAC headers are always transmitted same A-MPDU, where the payload length of by using the physical basic rate, which is very each MPDU does not exceed 2304 bytes. Sev- low compared to the physical data rates. This is eral simulation results will be given according why, when increasing the physical data rate, the to the number of MPDUs with different MPDU time duration spent to transmit the PHY and MAC lengths and physical data rates. headers becomes larger and larger compared to the • Fourthly, we report on the third and last time duration spent to transmit the frame payload. frame aggregation scheme, which is the hybrid Consequently, the channel bandwidth is less utilized. 4 Performance Study of Frame Aggregation Mechanisms Yazid • Bouallouche-Medjkoune • Aı̈ssani So, increasing the data rate at the PHY layer does with different MPDU frame lengths (1000 bytes and not systematically increase the bandwidth utilization 2000 bytes), and over various physical data rates (54 and MAC efficiency. Thereby, the frame aggregation Mbps, 100 Mbps and 150 Mbps). and block acknowledgment are required at MAC layer level in order to share among several frames the overheads mainly generated by the PHY and MAC headers, and inter-frame spacing. Figure 6: Throughput versus A-MPDU length over a data rate of 54 Mbps. We remark from Figure 6 that, the achievable Figure 5: Throughput versus A-MSDU length. throughput with the A-MPDU aggregation increases, at the beginning, with the increase of the number of In Figure 5, we analyze the achievable throughput MPDU frames in an A-MPDU frame, for both MPDU in an IEEE 802.11ac WLAN, when using the A- frame lengths 1000 bytes and 2000 bytes. However, MSDU frame aggregation mechanism at the MAC when the number of MPDU frames exceeds 40 layer level, according to the number of MSDU frames MPDUs and 16 MPDUs respectively for the MPDU aggregated in an A-MSDU frame. Therefore, we frame lengths of 1000 bytes and 2000 bytes, the have fixed the PHY data rate at 54 Mbps, the network achievable throughput decreases along the increase size at 15 stations, and we have varied the number of the number of MPDU frames. This degradation of MSDUs in an A-MSDU frame from 1 to 7 (i.e., in more remarkable in case of MPDU frame length we have varied the length of the A-MSDU frame of 2000 bytes, where the throughput increases first from 1000 bytes to 7000 bytes). We observe from from 26 Mbps (with 1 MPDU) to 37 Mbps (with Figure 5 that, the larger the A-MSDU frame length, 16 MPDUs), then it decreases to 27 Mbps (with the greater the achievable throughput in the IEEE 64 MPDUs). Through these results, we show for 802.11ac WLAN. We remark that, with an A-MSDU the first time in the literature that, with a specific frame of 1000 bytes the achievable throughput is value of physical data rate (54 Mbps, for example), 17 Mbps, it increases to 30 Mbps with an A-MSDU there is an optimum length of the A-MPDU frame frame of 7000 bytes. In terms of channel bandwidth, which allows the IEEE 802.11ac WLAN to achieve by enabling the A-MSDU aggregation at MAC layer the maximum throughput. Beyond of this A-MPDU level, the bandwidth utilization increases from 32% length, the achievable throughput will decrease with to 56% when the A-MSDU frame length increases the increase of A-MPDU length. Traditionally, we from 1000 bytes to 7000 bytes. This significant think that, increasing the amount of transmitted data improvement level, in terms of achievable throughput means automatically an increase of the achievable and bandwidth utilization, is provided by the A- throughput. Here, we prove that, for a given physical MSDU frame aggregation mechanism which allows data rate, the best achievable throughput in an IEEE several MSDU frames to be transmitted with the 802.11ac WLAN is conditioned by an optimum A- same PHY and MAC headers during one channel MPDU length. Before reaching this A-MPDU length, access. Thereby, the overheads caused by the there is a problem of overheads which harm the PHY and MAC headers, inter-frame spacing and throughput. But, after this value, there is an other channel access time, are shared among several problem which is the collision time that becomes MSDU frames. This is why, by enabling the A-MSDU more and more important with the increase of the aggregation, the overheads are significantly reduced A-MPDU length. and the amount of transmitted useful data is highly increased. In Figures 7 and 8, we illustrate the achievable throughput by applying the A-MPDU aggregation In Figures 6, 7 and 8, we analyze the achievable scheme on IEEE 802.11ac network over 100 Mbps throughput in an IEEE 802.11ac WLAN, by enabling and 150 Mbps, respectively. We note on both Figures the A-MPDU frame aggregation mechanism at MAC 7 and 8 that, the throughput increases with the layer level, according to the number of MPDU frames increase of the number of MPDU frames in an A- in an A-MPDU frame (from 1 MPDU to 64 MPDUs), MPDU frame, for both MPDU frame lengths 1000 5 Performance Study of Frame Aggregation Mechanisms Yazid • Bouallouche-Medjkoune • Aı̈ssani Figure 7: Throughput versus A-MPDU length over a data Figure 9: Throughput versus A-hybrid length over a data rate of 100 Mbps. rate of 100 Mbps. Figure 8: Throughput versus A-MPDU length over a data Figure 10: Throughput versus A-hybrid length over a data rate of 150 Mbps. rate of 200 Mbps. bytes and 2000 bytes. The maximum achievable throughputs with the maximum length of A-MPDU frame (64 MPDU frames of 2000 bytes for each of them) over the physical data rates 100 Mbps and 150 Mbps, are respectively 71 Mbps and 104 Mbps. This significant improvement, in terms of achievable throughput, is due to the collision time of the A-MPDU frame which is significantly reduced when using high data rates at the PHY layer level. So, when the length of the MAC frame is large, it is necessary to increase the data rate at the Figure 11: Throughput versus A-hybrid length over a data PHY layer in order to reduce the collision time and rate of 300 Mbps. consequently to improve the achievable throughput. However, there is a limit that the physical data rate should not exceed. Otherwise, the channel frame. The achievable throughput is given for two bandwidth will be less utilized because of temporal MPDU frame lengths: 2000 bytes and 4000 bytes, overheads. This why, with the physical data rate and over three different physical data rates: 100 of 100 Mbps, the rate of bandwidth utilization is Mbps, 200 Mbps and 300 Mbps. 71%. It is decreased to 69% with the physical data From Figure 9, we note that, with a MPDU frame rate of 150 Mbps. Therefore, for a given length of length of 4000 bytes and over a physical data rate MAC frame, there is an optimum physical data rate of 100 Mbps, the maximum throughput of the hybrid which reduces the collision time and minimizes the frame aggregation is reached with 32 MPDUs. In temporal overheads. Consequently, the achievable Figure 10, we show that, although the physical throughput is improved and the bandwidth utilization data rate used is high (200 Mbps), the achievable is enhanced. throughput decreases when the number of MPDU In Figures 9, 10 and 11, we evaluate the A-MSDU/A- frames exceeds 48 frames. 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