On Energy Saving in IEEE 802.11ax

Wi-Fi access has become a fundamental technology for smart building as reliable and efficient Wi-Fi is the foundation that effectively enable indoor smart devices in smart buildings. Recently, the IEEE 802.11ax standards were introduced to facilitate high-bandwidth wireless transmission in high-density environment as the new generation wireless local area network technology. In the IEEE 802.11ax, for the sake of energy-efficient smart devices, power saving mechanisms were included to further reduce Wi-Fi power consumption beyond the existing Wi-Fi power saving mechanisms. In this paper, a power saving design designated on the uplink multi-user system in 802.11ax is proposed. Additionally, an analytical analysis is developed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed power saving mechanism with further computer simulations to verify.