Multiple Packet Reception in Wireless Networks

Featuring Sanaz Barghi
Ph.D. Candidate
The Henry Samueli School of Engineering, UC Irvine

Location:  Engineering Gateway 3161
Free and open to the public

Abstract:
In this talk, a new cross-layer MAC/PHY design based on IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networks (WLANs) with hidden terminals will be presented.  In WLANs with hidden terminals, not all terminals can hear each other and multiple RTS packets may arrive at an access point (AP) with varying time offsets complicating the issue of collision handling.  Our proposed design utilizes a multiple-packet reception (MPR) algorithm that can minimize the number of dropped packets by resolving collisions in the PHY layer. Such design has two components: a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) MPR PHY that operates based on space-time codes, and a compatible MPR-aware MAC as an upgrade to IEEE 802.11 with RTS/CTS signaling. The MPR PHY detects multiple asynchronous packets while providing diversity gain. The MPR-aware MAC framework is tuned to maximally benefit from multiple packet delivery and to accept multiple RTS packets with large offsets. Simulation results show that with our proposed PHY/MAC framework, the throughput of a WLAN reaches more than twice that of IEEE 802.11 in many scenarios of operation.

About the Speaker:
Sanaz Barghi received B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran in 2005 and 2007. She is currently working toward a Ph.D. degree in University of California, Irvine. Her research interests include wireless communications and cross layer designs.