WiFiMAC

Provides a data link layer and phy model according to IEEE 802.11 standart, also known as WiFi or WLAN. More... The WiFiMAC is partitioned into three different sections:

• The Higher MAC, also often named layer 2.5, responsible for the path selection in a multi-hop IEEE 802.11 network and coordinating one or more lower MACs.
• The Lower MAC, implementing the IEEE 802.11 Distributed Contention Function (DCF) and derivates.
• The Convergence, which models the IEEE 802.11 physical layer.

Additional functionality is provided by the management plane and helper functionalities.

The basis component of the WiFiMAC is wifimac::Layer2, derived from dll::ILayer2. It allows for multiple transceivers, each consisting of a lower MAC, a convergence and a OFDM-based radio. The multiple transceivers are combined using the higher MAC, essentially a forwarding-entity that uses path selection algorithms to determine the optimal transceiver for the given packet destination.

Higher MAC

The Higher MAC provides the wifimac::pathselection functionality

Lower MAC

The Lower MAC, wifimac::lowerMAC, represents the data link layer in every transceiver. In here, the neccessary functional units for the operation of the IEEE 802.11 MAC can be found.

Convergence

wifimac::convergence provides FUs to access the OFDM physical layer, but also incorporates

• Error modelling, including synchronization and
• Interfaces to signal the current channel state to the MAC

Additional functionality

wifimac::helper incorporates functions for dll::CompoundFilter, contextprovider (wifimac::helper::contextprovider) and keys.

Management Plane

wifimac::management contains functions for the management plane. Most importantly the wifimac::management::Beacon FU for beacon transmission and reception plus association; Furthermore, the management information bases for

• PER measurement (wifimac::management::PERInformationBase)
• SINR measurement (wifimac::management::SINRInformationBase)
• Node capabilities (wifimac::management::VirtualCapabilityInformationBase)

DraftN implementation

wifimac::draftn enhances the wifimac::lowerMAC FUN with functional units for

• Block Acknowledgement, wifimac::draftn::BlockACK and
• Frame Aggregation, wifimac::draftn::Aggregation

Furthermore, it implements rate adaptation strategies that include the possibility to transmit with multiple streams (wifimac::draftn:rateAdaptationStrategies) and a DeAggregation-FU to simulate the improved packet error robustness of frame aggregation according to A-MPDU (wifimac::draftn::DeAggregation).