6533b7d1fe1ef96bd125ceb3

RESEARCH PRODUCT

MAC design on real 802.11 devices: From exponential to Moderated Backoff

Ilenia TinnirelloFabrizio GiulianoGiuseppe BianchiMenzo WentinkDomenico Garlisi

subject

Settore ING-INF/03 - Telecomunicazionibusiness.industryFirmwareWireless ad hoc networkComputer scienceComputerSystemsOrganization_COMPUTER-COMMUNICATIONNETWORKS05 social sciences050801 communication & media studies020206 networking & telecommunicationsTime critical02 engineering and technologyDistributed coordination functioncomputer.software_genreExponential functionComputer Networks and Communication0508 media and communicationsFormal languageMedia Technology0202 electrical engineering electronic engineering information engineeringWirelessbusinesscomputerComputer network

description

In this paper we describe how a novel backoff mechanism called Moderated Backoff (MB), recently proposed as a standard extension for 802.11 networks, has been prototyped and experimentally validated on a commercial 802.11 card before being ratified. Indeed, for performance reasons, the time critical operations of MAC protocols, such as the backoff mechanism, are implemented into the card hardware/firmware and cannot be arbitrarily changed by third parties or by manufacturers only for experimental reasons. Our validation has been possible thanks to the availability of the so called Wireless MAC Processor (WMP), a prototype of a novel wireless card architecture in which MAC protocols can be programmed by using proper abstractions and a state-machine formal language, which enable easy modifications of legacy operations. Experimental results are in agreement with simulations and prove the effectiveness of Moderated Backoff, as well as the potentialities of the WMP platform.

yearjournalcountryeditionlanguage
2016-06-012016 IEEE 17th International Symposium on A World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks (WoWMoM)
https://doi.org/10.1109/wowmom.2016.7523503