TY - JOUR
T1 - On improving the performance of IEEE 802.11 with relay-enabled PCF
AU - Zhu, Hao
AU - Cao, Guohong
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank the editors and the anonymous referees whose insightful comments helped us to improve the presentation of the paper. This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation (CAREER CCR-0092770 and ITR-0219711).
PY - 2004/8
Y1 - 2004/8
N2 - Integrating wireless LAN (WLAN) techniques with the third generation cellular networks has become a promising way to improve the performance of wireless systems. As WLANs play an important role in such heterogeneous systems, the performance of WLANs becomes important to the whole system. It is well known that WLANs provide a physical layer multi-rate capability, and hence MAC layer mechanisms are needed to exploit this capability. In this paper, we propose a novel MAC layer relay-enabled point coordination function (PCF) protocol, called rPCF, to exploit the physical layer multi-rate capability. Since WLAN supports multiple data rates in response to different channel conditions, data packets may be delivered faster through a relay node than through the direct link if the direct link has low quality and low rate. To enable MAC layer relay, the access point needs to collect information about the channel conditions, and notify the mobile nodes which data rate to use and whether to transmit the data through a relay station. We design protocols to achieve this goal and refine these protocols to minimize the control overhead. Simulation results show that rPCF can significantly improve the system performance in terms of system throughput and transmission delay by adding only a negligible control overhead.
AB - Integrating wireless LAN (WLAN) techniques with the third generation cellular networks has become a promising way to improve the performance of wireless systems. As WLANs play an important role in such heterogeneous systems, the performance of WLANs becomes important to the whole system. It is well known that WLANs provide a physical layer multi-rate capability, and hence MAC layer mechanisms are needed to exploit this capability. In this paper, we propose a novel MAC layer relay-enabled point coordination function (PCF) protocol, called rPCF, to exploit the physical layer multi-rate capability. Since WLAN supports multiple data rates in response to different channel conditions, data packets may be delivered faster through a relay node than through the direct link if the direct link has low quality and low rate. To enable MAC layer relay, the access point needs to collect information about the channel conditions, and notify the mobile nodes which data rate to use and whether to transmit the data through a relay station. We design protocols to achieve this goal and refine these protocols to minimize the control overhead. Simulation results show that rPCF can significantly improve the system performance in terms of system throughput and transmission delay by adding only a negligible control overhead.
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U2 - 10.1023/B:MONE.0000031608.10301.18
DO - 10.1023/B:MONE.0000031608.10301.18
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:3042838873
SN - 1383-469X
VL - 9
SP - 423
EP - 434
JO - Mobile Networks and Applications
JF - Mobile Networks and Applications
IS - 4
ER -