Date of Award
2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Engineering (MSE)
Department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Committee Chair
Laurie L. Joiner
Committee Member
Adam Panagos
Committee Member
David Pan
Subject(s)
IEEE 80211 (Standard), Wireless LANs--Standards
Abstract
Faster internet is always in demand for both consumer and professional use cases. The wireless network standard IEEE 802.11ac, also known as Wi-Fi 5, was published in 2013 and has a theoretical maximum data rate of 867 Mbps per stream. Upcoming Hi-Resolution VR technology, streaming 8k media, competitive gaming and its low-latency demands, all require higher data rates and lower latency than what the 11ac technology can provide. The new IEEE 802.11ax stand-ard or Wi-Fi 6, promises higher bandwidth and higher throughput in a dense user environment. It aims not only at improving individual user speed but also at improving the network experience when numerous devices are connected. This thesis analyzes the performance of 11ax in every aspect of usage and compares it directly with its predecessor, 11ac. To achieve this, iPerf, a time tested, industry-standard network performance benchmark tool is utilized. Performance is tested in outdoor, indoor, noisy, and noise-free environments. Throughput is measured for both uplink and downlink. Scaling is tested across 1-8 devices to simulate a dense user environment. Experiments are also conducted to see how MU-MIMO and Beamforming affect performance. 11ax’s ability to be more power-efficient is also tested.
Recommended Citation
Surendranathan, Umeshwarnath, "Wi-Fi 6 : performance analysis of IEEE 802.11AX" (2019). Theses. 294.
https://louis.uah.edu/uah-theses/294