IEEE 802.11ah: A Long Range 802.11 WLAN at Sub 1 GHz

Authors

  • Weiping Sun Department of ECE and INMC, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
  • Munhwan Choi Department of ECE and INMC, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
  • Sunghyun Choi Department of ECE and INMC, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13052/jicts2245-800X.125

Keywords:

Sub 1 GHz, IEEE 802.11ah, smart grid, long range WLAN

Abstract

IEEE 802.11ah is an emerging Wireless LAN (WLAN) standard that defines a WLAN system operating at sub 1 GHz license-exempt bands. Thanks to the favorable propagation characteristics of the low frequency spectra, 802.11ah can provide much improved transmission range compared with the conventional 802.11 WLANs operating at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. 802.11ah can be used for various purposes including large scale sensor networks, extended range hotspot, and outdoor Wi-Fi for cellular traffic offloading, whereas the available bandwidth is relatively narrow.

In this paper, we give a technical overview of 802.11ah Physical (PHY) layer and Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. For the 802.11ah PHY, which is designed based on the down-clocked operation of IEEE 802.11ac’s PHY layer, we describe its channelization and transmission modes. Besides, 802.11ah MAC layer has adopted some enhancements to fulfill the expected system requirements. These enhancements include the improvement of power saving features, support of large number of stations, efficient medium access mechanisms and throughput enhancements by greater compactness of various frame formats. Through the numerical analysis, we evaluate the transmission range for indoor and outdoor environments and the theoretical throughput with newly defined channel access mechanisms.

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Author Biographies

Weiping Sun, Department of ECE and INMC, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

Weiping Sun received the B.E. degree of Network Engineering from Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China in 2010. He is currently working toward a Ph.D. degree in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. His current research interests focus on IEEE 802.11 WLAN MAC protocol and algorithm design.

Munhwan Choi, Department of ECE and INMC, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

Munhwan Choi received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea in 2005 and 2007, respectively. He is currently working toward a Ph.D. degree in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. His current research interests include algorithmic design and protocol development for various communication systems such as IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networks and 60 GHz wireless personal area networks.

Sunghyun Choi, Department of ECE and INMC, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

Sunghyun Choi is a professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Seoul National University (SNU), Korea. Before joining SNU in 2002, he was with Philips Research USA. He was also a visiting associate professor at Stanford University, USA from June 2009 to June 2010. He received his B.S. (summa cum laude) and M.S. degrees from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in 1992 and 1994, respectively, and received Ph.D. from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1999. His current research interests are in the area of wire-less/mobile networks. He authored/coauthored over 150 technical papers and book chapters in the areas of wireless/mobile networks and communications. He has co-authored (with B. G. Lee) a book entitled “Broadband Wireless Access and Local Networks: Mobile WiMAX and WiFi,”Artech House, 2008. He holds about 100 patents, and has tens of patents pending. He is also currently serving on the editorial boards of IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing and IEEE Wireless Communications. He has received a number of awards including the Presidential Young Scientist Award (2008); IEEK/IEEE Joint Award for Young IT Engineer (2007); Shinyang Scholarship Award (2011); the Outstanding Research Award (2008) and the Best Teaching Award (2006) from the College of Engineering, SNU; and the Best Paper Award from IEEE WoWMoM 2008.

References

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Published

2013-07-26

How to Cite

Sun, W. ., Choi, M. ., & Choi, S. . (2013). IEEE 802.11ah: A Long Range 802.11 WLAN at Sub 1 GHz. Journal of ICT Standardization, 1(1), 83–108. https://doi.org/10.13052/jicts2245-800X.125

Issue

2013: Vol 1 Iss 1

Section

Articles