Performance evaluation of a MAC protocol for radio over fiber wireless LAN operating in the 60-GHz band

Wireless networks using radio over fiber (RoF) technology operating in millimeter-wave (mm-wave) bands have been suggested as promising solutions to meet increasing user bandwidth and mobility demands. Due to the high penetration loss of mm-wave band signal, a wireless LAN (WLAN) based on this technology has properties quite different from those of conventional WLAN systems. That is, every room in a building should have at least one base station (BS). Thus, a challenging problem lies in the medium access control (MAC) protocol design so that it can support QoS requirements as well as a fast and easy handover. A MAC protocol (chess board protocol) based on frequency switching (FS) codes has been proposed by the authors considering the situation (H. B. Kim et al., April 2003). In this paper performance evaluation results for simple six variants of it are described and discussed.