A Cluster-Based OFDMA MAC Protocol using Carrier-Sensing Scheme for IEEE 802.11ax WLANs

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) is utilized in wireless local area networks (WLANs) to improve channel utilization and increase network throughput. However, random transmissions by wireless stations can lead to Resource Unit Collision Problem (RUCP) and Hidden Node induced RUCP (HN-RUCP), significantly degrading network throughput. Therefore, this paper proposes a Cluster-based OFDMA MAC protocol using the Carrier-sensing scheme, CC-OFDMA, for dense WLANs. Simulation results conducted using MATLAB show that the CC-OFDMA MAC protocol outperforms related works in terms of transmission latency and collisions.