Multi-polling game for IEEE 802.11 networks

Abstract

IEEE 802.11 is one of the most common technologies these days. Due to its simplicity and easy integration in various applications its usage in recent years has grown exponentially [1]. The increasing amount of wireless devices and various applications such as WBAN (Wireless Body Area Networks), WISPs (Wireless internet service provides) have increased the interference in unlicensed band, which reduced the total system capacity. Recently the highly acclaimed version of IEEE 802.11ac with additional modulation capabilities was released. However, the basic idea and Media Access Control (MAC) layer methods were left the same. Therefore, there is a need for more efficient MAC layer protocol for usage both for currently existing IEEE 802.11n and for new IEEE 802.11ac standards. In this paper, we will do a case study Hybrid Carrier Sense Multiple Access Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) and Polling Mechanism in currently existing IEEE 802.11n MAC layer implementation possibilities. Since the main problem usually occurs on software implementation, by using already available Wi-Fi hardware in paper, we will consider various methods to bypass the limitations of already existing CSMA/CA protocol. Also, we will review the arising problems and currently available implementations of IEEE 802.11 improvements. Due to the dynamics of wireless environment, we also will test a Game Theory as a possible solution for interactions between different wireless nodes connected to the Access Point.