Enhancing the ns-3 IEEE 802.11ad Model Fidelity

Abstract

Next generation wireless local area networks are envisioned to serve a high number of devices with heterogeneous capabilities and service requirements. Millimeter-wave technology is expected to be able to satisfy these demands and complement the highly congested wireless networks operating in the sub-6 GHz band. However, real-world experimentation with millimeter-wave communications is not always feasible due to the significant amount of resources required and its associated costs. For these reasons, researchers resort to high fidelity system-level simulators which provide a high degree of flexibility to test complex network deployments with a reasonable level of abstraction at the physical layer. The ns-3 IEEE 802.11ad model allows researchers to study large-scale wireless networks operating in the 60 GHz band, taking into account all of the essential features supported by the standard. However, the beamforming capabilities in the current implementation still lack both the flexibility and the agility that commercial of-the-shelf devices offer. Additionally, the model relies on a simplified channel model that does not accurately reflect the characteristics of a millimeter-wave channel. In this paper, we augment our ns-3 IEEE 802.11ad model with novel features that enhance its fidelity and provide the user fine grained control over physical and MAC layer aspects of 802.11ad devices. These features include beam codebooks, multi-antenna beamforming training, beam refinement and beam tracking capabilities, and a quasi-deterministic channel model. Our work paves the way for a future implementation of the next generation wireless gigabit standard, IEEE 802.11ay.