Efficient dynamic frame aggregation in IEEE 802.11s mesh networks

IEEE 802.11n could improve the network efficiency of WLAN by aggregating multiple frames into a single transmission. The frame aggregation technique especially benefits multi-hop transmissions that introduce enormous 802.11 medium access control (MAC) layer control overhead. This paper proposes a novel algorithm, namely dynamic aggregation selection and scheduling (DASS) algorithm, that can dynamically adopt the appropriate aggregation mechanism for IEEE 802.11s mesh network. The characteristics, benefits and the restrictions of three aggregation mechanisms, aggregate MAC service data units, aggregate MAC protocol data unit and aggregate physical protocol data unit, are investigated. Based on the channel condition, the quantity and the distribution of the frame arrivals, DASS could determine what aggregation mechanism to adopt and whether to wait for the next frame for aggregating transmissions. Simulation results demonstrate that the algorithm significantly increases the channel efficiency of the 802.11 MAC and further improves the overall throughput of the wireless mesh network by approximately 95%. Copyright q 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.