An Analytical Model for CBAP Allocations in IEEE 802.11ad

Published

January 15, 2021

Author(s)

Nada Golmie, Tanguy Ropitault, Michele Zorzi, Chiara Pielli

Abstract

The IEEE 802.11ad standard extends WiFi operation to the millimeter wave frequencies, and introduces novel features concerning both the physical (PHY) and Medium Access Control (MAC) layers. However, while there are extensive research efforts to develop mechanisms for establishing and maintaining directional links for mmWave communications, fewer works deal with transmission scheduling and the hybrid MAC introduced by the standard. The hybrid MAC layer provides for two different kinds of resource allocations: Contention Based Access Periods (CBAPs) and contention free Service Periods (SPs). In this paper, we propose a Markov Chain model to represent CBAPs, which takes into account operation interruptions due to scheduled SPs and the deafness and hidden node problems that directional communication exacerbates. We also propose a mathematical analysis to assess interference among stations. We derive analytical expressions to assess the impact of various transmission parameters and of the Data Transmission Interval configuration on some key performance metrics such as throughput, delay and packet dropping rate. This information may be used to efficiently design a transmission scheduler that allocates contention-based and contention-free periods based on the application requirements.

Citation

IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications

Volume

69

Issue

1

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1109/TCOMM.2020.3032199

Local Download

Keywords

mmWave, data transmission, wireless communications, 802.11ad networks, 5G

Citation

Golmie, N. , Ropitault, T. , Zorzi, M. and Pielli, C. (2021), An Analytical Model for CBAP Allocations in IEEE 802.11ad, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, [online], https://doi.org/10.1109/TCOMM.2020.3032199 (Accessed October 11, 2025)