Enabling efficient multi-channel bonding for IEEE 802.11ac WLANs
Sami Khairy, Mengqi Han, Lin X. Cai, Yu Cheng, Zhu Han · 2017
In this paper, an analytical model is developed to study the performance of distributed and opportunistic multichannel bonding in IEEE 802.11ac WLANs, with co-existing legacy IEEE 802.11a/b/g users. By modeling the transmissions of legacy users and ac users with and without channel bonding in each channel as a two-level renewal process, the channel bonding probability of ac users in each secondary channel is derived. Based on the bonding probability, the throughput of legacy users and ac users can be analyzed respectively. Our analysis shows that ac users with bonding capabilities achieve higher throughput at the cost of degraded throughput of legacy users. The overall network throughput also decreases due to the increased contention level imposed by ac users in secondary channels. Based on the analysis, we further propose a channel selection scheme for ac users to select the best primary channel, in order to mitigate the contentions in the network and attain the maximal network throughput. Extensive simulations using NS-3 validate the analysis and demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed channel selection scheme.