Multi-link operation in IEEE 802.11be WLANs

The multi-link operation (MLO) is a new feature proposed to be part of the IEEE 802.11be Extremely High Throughput (EHT) amendment. Such feature represents a paradigm shift towards multi-link communications, as nodes will be allowed to transmit and receive data over multiple radio interfaces concurr...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: López Raventós, Álvaro, Bellalta, Boris
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Repositorio:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/55588
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/55588
http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MWC.006.2100404
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:IEEE 802.11be
Multi-link operation
Traffic allocation
WLANs
Descripción
Sumario:The multi-link operation (MLO) is a new feature proposed to be part of the IEEE 802.11be Extremely High Throughput (EHT) amendment. Such feature represents a paradigm shift towards multi-link communications, as nodes will be allowed to transmit and receive data over multiple radio interfaces concurrently. To make it possible, the 802.11be Task Group has proposed different modifications in regards to nodes' architecture, transmission operation, and management functionalities. This article reviews such changes and tackles the question of how traffic should be distributed over multiple links, as it is still unresolved. To that end, we evaluate different load balancing strategies over the active links. Results show that in high load, dense and complex scenarios, implementing congestion aware load balancing policies to significantly enhance next-generation WLAN performance using MLO is a must.