MAC Frame Aggregation for Wireless LAN Throughput
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing communication technologies face challenges in improving communication throughput due to overheads associated with transmitting multiple frames, particularly in wireless LANs, where increasing physical layer speeds do not effectively translate to improved throughput and can lead to reduced error tolerance and limited efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A communication apparatus and method that aggregates multiple MAC frames into a single physical frame, using a reception buffer to manage frame transmission and acknowledgement, allowing successful frames to be forwarded to upper layers while retransmitting failed frames, thereby reducing overhead and enhancing throughput.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple MAC frames are transmitted separately, then each frame can be acknowledged individually, but overhead increases and throughput decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple MAC frames into a single aggregated frame structure, where multiple individual frame acknowledgements are merged into one collective acknowledgement. This reduces the number of separate acknowledgement transmissions needed, thereby reducing overhead and improving throughput while maintaining reliable frame-by-frame acknowledgement.
Solution Approach 2:
The aggregated frame structure serves multiple functions simultaneously: it carries multiple data frames, provides individual sequence numbers for each frame, and enables collective acknowledgement for all frames. This multi-functional approach eliminates the need for separate acknowledgement mechanisms for each frame.
2Speed
If physical layer transmission speed is increased, then data transfer rate improves, but error tolerance decreases and overhead becomes more significant
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the aggregated frame into multiple individual MAC frames, each with its own sequence number and integrity checks. This segmentation allows the receiving end to identify and acknowledge only the successfully received frames, improving error tolerance by enabling selective retransmission of only failed frames rather than requiring retransmission of entire high-speed data streams.
3Ease of operation
If multiple frames are transmitted without aggregation, then simplicity is maintained, but overhead increases and efficiency is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple MAC frames into a single aggregated transmission unit while preserving the individual frame structures within. This maintains the simplicity of standard MAC frame formats and processing logic, while significantly improving communication efficiency by reducing the number of separate transmission and acknowledgement cycles required.
Data Source
AI summary
A communication apparatus includes a receiving device configured to receive a physical frame in which a plurality of MAC frames, each having a sequence number, are aggregated. A reception buffer which stores MAC frames of the physical frame received by the receiving device. A determination device determines whether or not the first MAC frame in the physical frame received by the receiving device has been successfully received. A reception buffer management device determines, when the first MAC frame has been successfully received, a MAC frame to be forwarded to an upper layer, on the basis of the sequence number of the first MAC frame, and extracts the MAC frame from the reception buffer.