Advanced IEEE 802.11ax TCP aware scheduling under unreliable channels

TL;DR

This paper proposes advanced TCP-aware scheduling strategies for IEEE 802.11ax WiFi networks that optimize throughput and delay by leveraging multi-user transmission capabilities and TXOP control.

Contribution

It introduces three novel scheduling strategies based on TXOP formation for IEEE 802.11ax, enhancing TCP performance under unreliable channels.

Findings

Optimized Goodput with minimal delay increase

Effective control of delay vs. throughput trade-off

Improved performance in saturated queues

Abstract

In this paper we suggest advanced IEEE 802.11ax TCP-aware scheduling strategies for optimizing the AP operation under transmission of unidirectional TCP traffic. Our scheduling strategies optimize the performance using the capability for Multi User transmissions over the Uplink, first introduced in IEEE 802.11ax, together with Multi User transmissions over the Downlink. They are based on Transmission Opportunities (TXOP) and we suggest three scheduling strategies determining the TXOP formation parameters. In one of the strategies one can control the achieved Goodput vs. the delay. We also assume saturated WiFi transmission queues. We show that with minimal Goodput degradation one can avoid considerable delays.