Multi-Link Operation for Performance Improvement in Wi-Fi 7 Networks

The Wi-Fi 7 standard is in the final voting phase, and devices that support this standard are already accessible in the market. The seventh generation of Wi-Fi standards is primarily designed to enable extremely fast transmission speeds and minimize packet delays. Multi-link operation (MLO) plays a vital role in meeting these requirements. Using ns3 simulation tool, we examine MLO performance in the propagation scenario of a residential building, considering a various number of users. The obtained results demonstrate that, when comparing the same total occupied bandwidth, the two-link MLO mode exhibits slightly better performance than SLO mode. Furthermore, our findings indicate that MLO significantly reduces average packet delay, particularly in scenarios with many users.