Performance Evaluation of IEEE 802.11ac and 802.11n using NS3

Abstract

Objectives: In this paper, the performance parameters in the WLANs are discussed and we evaluate the superior performance of the new IEEE 802.11ac standard with respect to 802.11n. Methods/Analysis: NS3 is an open source network simulator, the latest version of which (ns-3.24.1) has been appended with features to support 802.11ac. Simulations are performed in NS3 to demonstrate the superior performance of the new 802.11ac standard with respect to 802.11n. Features verified are channel bonding, guard interval and MCS while performance is measured with parameters such as jitter, throughput and delay. Findings: IEEE 802.11ac is a Very High Throughput (VHT) WLAN standard that can achieve data rates in the order of 7 Gbps in the 5 GHz band. This has been achieved by enhancing the features in the earlier IEEE 802.11n standard in the MAC and PHY layers. The simulations reveal improvement in throughput, delay and jitter performance with usage of increased bandwidths.