IEEE 802.11ax: giant leap in WLAN evolution
Mariusz Bednarczyk · 2019
Wireless local area networks (WLANs) are a cost-efficient solution that satisfy most current communication requirements in domestic, public and business scenarios. However, WLANs face two main challenges. Firstly, they must address dense scenarios, which is motivated by the continuous deployment of new access points to cover new areas. Secondly, the current evolution of services toward real-time high-definition audio and video content significantly increase users’ throughput needs. This paper includes a new Wireless LAN amendment to IEEE 802.11 specification. The new amendment is named IEEE 802.11ax (also High Efficiency WLAN) and increases the per-user throughput by 4 times compared to existing WLAN standards. This is to enable to operate a large number of devices (laptops, smartphones and Internet of Things equipment) producing a lot of data. This article overviews some of new PHY and MAC enhancements and describes the potential benefits and drawbacks of each one. The comparison with its predecessor IEEE 802.11ac is carried out. Because the proposed solution is still not ratified, the article focuses on the open issues and provide a description of the mechanisms.