Assessment of novel solutions for throughput enhancement in IEEE 802.11ax networks

IEEE 801.11 Working Group is developing the sixth generation of wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, denoted as 802.11ax. The main goal of the new standard is to improve 2,4GHz and 5GHz network performance, in scenarios with multiple overlapping and dense basic service sets (BSSs). In this paper we highlight two novel solutions proposed in the new standard, i.e. implementation of 1024-QAM in modulation and coding scheme (MCS) 11 and BSS color for avoiding interference in overlapping BSSs. For assessment of the level of throughput enhancement attained through implementation of MCS 11, we compare 802.11ax and 802.11ac network performance in indoor communication scenario, assuming multi-user environment. For examining BSS color efficiency, we compare throughput of three overlapping BSSs in an outdoor environment, in scenarios with BSS color enabled and disabled at network nodes. All results are obtained using ns-3 network simulator and they confirm the efficiency of the novel solutions for performance enhancement in IEEE 802.11ax networks, as the achieved throughput increase ranges from 14-18% when using MCS 11, and up to 47% with implementing BSS color, in the assumed scenarios.