A Software Platform for Testing Multi-Link Operation in Industrial Wi-Fi Networks

TL;DR

This paper presents an experimental platform using commercial hardware and open source software to evaluate Multi-Link Operation in Wi-Fi 7, demonstrating its potential to improve reliability and performance in industrial scenarios.

Contribution

It introduces a practical testing platform for MLO in Wi-Fi 7, enabling evaluation of link diversity and performance benefits using accessible hardware and software.

Findings

Limited correlation between links suggests MLO can enhance reliability.

Experimental results support MLO's potential in industrial Wi-Fi applications.

Platform facilitates rapid prototyping and assessment of MLO techniques.

Abstract

Multi-Link Operation (MLO) in Wi-Fi 7 is expected to tangibly boost throughput while lowering transmission latency at the same time. This is very relevant in industrial scenarios and makes MLO suitable, e.g., to support seamless device mobility. Benefits depend on the ability of multi-link devices to select at run-time the best link, among the available ones, in order to maximize both communication performance and reliability. In this paper an experimental platform is proposed, with the aim of leveraging commercial hardware and open source software, and easing prototyping and evaluation of MLO techniques. The platform has been employed to analyze the transmission quality of two pairs of non-overlapping channels, and in particular to assess whether or not adequate diversity is provided, so that those channels can be exploited to improve reliability. Results point out that correlation between different links is, in most cases, limited, which makes MLO a valuable approach.