Directional MAC protocol for IEEE 802.11ad based wireless local area networks

Abstract

IEEE 802.11ad defines a new physical and medium access control layer for IEEE 802.11 networks to operate in the unlicensed 60 GHz millimeter wave spectrum for multi-gigabit wireless communications. Higher frequency waves have higher propagation loss but smaller antenna size. Hence, for millimeter wave networks, higher number of antennas can be packed together, enabling beamforming with very large gains. In this paper, we propose a novel Directional MAC protocol for Basic Stations (DMBS) with the goal of fully leveraging spatial reusability, and limiting deafness and hidden terminal problems with minimal overhead, and without using any complicated hardware for localization. The distinguishing features of DMBS are threefold. First, DMBS extends the association beamforming training time (A-BFT) of IEEE 802.11ad, during which the stations perform initial beamforming training with the access point (AP), by an intelligent listening mechanism. This mechanism allows the stations to passively learn about the best direction of the neighboring stations, decreasing the associated beamforming training overhead. Second, DMBS determines the best transmission direction by using multi-directional sequential (circular) RTS/CTS (Request To Send/ Clear To Send) (CRTS/CCTS) packets, and tracks the best direction by updating its beamforming table upon reception of every RTS/CTS packet, without requiring any additional hardware for localization. If the location information of the destination is up-to-date, the source station only transmits directional RTS/CTS (DRTS/DCTS) in the known direction. Third, DMBS uses two network allocation vectors (NAVs). The first NAV, denoted by NAV1, is used to reduce deafness by determining the busy nodes upon the reception of every RTS/CTS packet. The second NAV, called NAV2, is used to limit hidden terminal problem while maximizing spatial reusability by determining whether a transmission can interfere with active communication links. If NAV2 is set, then the node defers its multi-directional communication but still communicates directionally. We provide a novel Markov chain based analytical model to calculate the aggregate network throughput of DMBS. We demonstrate via extensive simulations that DMBS performs better than existing directional communication protocols in terms of throughput for different network sizes, mobilities and number of receivers. (c) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.