Efficiency of frame aggregation in wireless multimedia networks based on IEEE 802.11n

This paper evaluates the major MAC enhancement of IEEE 802.11n to realize high throughput, i.e. frame aggregation. In contrast to existing studies of this enhancement, we analyze the efficiency instead of the mere performance. The results show significant efficiency improvement by frame aggregation. Furthermore, the efficiency analysis leads to important conclusions for system configuration and adaptation and reveals effects which are beyond the scope of existing work. It is shown that the most feasible configuration is to apply maximum aggregation and to adapt the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) instead of the frame size. Furthermore, the efficiency analysis points out that in case the network is not saturated the 20 MHz mode is more efficient than the 40 MHz option.