.. include:: replace.txt

Wifi

----

|ns3| nodes can contain a collection of NetDevice objects, much like an actual

computer contains separate interface cards for Ethernet, Wifi, Bluetooth, etc.

This chapter describes the |ns3| WifiNetDevice and related models. By adding

WifiNetDevice objects to |ns3| nodes, one can create models of 802.11-based

infrastructure and ad hoc networks.

Overview of the model

*********************

The WifiNetDevice models a wireless network interface controller based

on the IEEE 802.11 standard [ieee80211]_. We will go into more detail below but in brief,

|ns3| provides models for these aspects of 802.11:

* basic 802.11 DCF with **infrastructure** and **adhoc** modes

* **802.11a**, **802.11b** and **802.11g** physical layers

* QoS-based EDCA and queueing extensions of **802.11e**

* various propagation loss models including **Nakagami, Rayleigh, Friis,

  LogDistance, FixedRss, Random**

* two propagation delay models, a distance-based and random model

* various rate control algorithms including **Aarf, Arf, Cara, Onoe, Rraa,

  ConstantRate, and Minstrel**

* 802.11s (mesh), described in another chapter

The set of 802.11 models provided in |ns3| attempts to provide an accurate

MAC-level implementation of the 802.11 specification and to provide a

not-so-slow PHY-level model of the 802.11a specification.

The implementation is modular and provides roughly four levels of models:

* the **PHY layer models**

* the so-called **MAC low models**: they implement DCF and EDCAF

* the so-called **MAC high models**: they implement the MAC-level beacon

  generation, probing, and association state machines, and

* a set of **Rate control algorithms** used by the MAC low models

There are presently three **MAC high models** that provide for the three

(non-mesh; the mesh equivalent, which is a sibling of these with common

parent ``ns3::RegularWifiMac``, is not discussed here) Wi-Fi topological

elements - Access Point (AP) (implemented in class ``ns3::ApWifiMac``, 

non-AP Station (STA) (``ns3::StaWifiMac``), and STA in an Independent

Basic Service Set (IBSS - also commonly referred to as an ad hoc

network (``ns3::AdhocWifiMac``).

The simplest of these is ``ns3::AdhocWifiMac``, which implements a

Wi-Fi MAC that does not perform any kind of beacon generation,

probing, or association. The ``ns3::StaWifiMac`` class implements

an active probing and association state machine that handles automatic

re-association whenever too many beacons are missed. Finally,

``ns3::ApWifiMac`` implements an AP that generates periodic

beacons, and that accepts every attempt to associate.

These three MAC high models share a common parent in

``ns3::RegularWifiMac``, which exposes, among other MAC

configuration, an attribute ``QosSupported`` that allows

models it is possible to work with traffic belonging to four different

Access Categories (ACs): **AC_VO** for voice traffic,

**AC_VI** for video traffic, **AC_BE** for best-effort

traffic and **AC_BK** for background traffic.  In order for the

MAC to determine the appropriate AC for an MSDU, packets forwarded

down to these MAC layers should be marked using **ns3::QosTag** in

order to set a TID (traffic id) for that packet otherwise it will be

considered belonging to **AC_BE**.

The **MAC low layer** is split into three components:

#. ``ns3::MacLow`` which takes care of RTS/CTS/DATA/ACK transactions.

#. ``ns3::DcfManager`` and ``ns3::DcfState`` which implements the DCF and EDCAF

   functions.

#. ``ns3::DcaTxop`` and ``ns3::EdcaTxopN`` which handle the packet queue,

   packet fragmentation, and packet retransmissions if they are needed.

   The ``ns3::DcaTxop`` object is used high MACs that are not QoS-enabled,

   and for transmission of frames (e.g., of type Management)

   that the standard says should access the medium using the DCF. 

   ``ns3::EdcaTxopN`` is is used by QoS-enabled high MACs and also

   performs QoS operations like 802.11n-style MSDU aggregation.

There are also several **rate control algorithms** that can be used by the Mac low layer:

* ``OnoeWifiManager``

* ``IdealWifiManager``

* ``AarfcdWifiManager``

* ``AarfWifiManager``

* ``ArfWifiManager``

* ``AmrrWifiManager``

* ``ConstantRateWifiManager``

* ``MinstrelWifiManager``

* ``CaraWifiManager``

* ``RraaWifiManager``

The PHY layer implements a single model in the ``ns3::WifiPhy class``: the

physical layer model implemented there is described fully in a paper entitled

`Yet Another Network Simulator <http://cutebugs.net/files/wns2-yans.pdf>`_

Validation results for 802.11b are available in this

`technical report <http://www.nsnam.org/~pei/80211b.pdf>`_

In |ns3|, nodes can have multiple WifiNetDevices on separate channels, and the

WifiNetDevice can coexist with other device types; this removes an architectural

limitation found in ns-2. Presently, however, there is no model for

cross-channel interference or coupling.

The source code for the Wifi NetDevice lives in the directory

``src/wifi``.

.. _wifi-architecture:

.. figure:: figures/WifiArchitecture.*

   Wifi NetDevice architecture.

Using the WifiNetDevice

***********************

The modularity provided by the implementation makes low-level configuration of

the WifiNetDevice powerful but complex. For this reason, we provide some helper

classes to perform common operations in a simple matter, and leverage the |ns3|

attribute system to allow users to control the parametrization of the underlying

models.

Users who use the low-level |ns3| API and who wish to add a WifiNetDevice to

their node must create an instance of a WifiNetDevice, plus a number of

constituent objects, and bind them together appropriately (the WifiNetDevice is

very modular in this regard, for future extensibility). At the low-level API,

this can be done with about 20 lines of code (see ``ns3::WifiHelper::Install``,

and ``ns3::YansWifiPhyHelper::Create``). They also must create, at some point, a

WifiChannel, which also contains a number of constituent objects (see

``ns3::YansWifiChannelHelper::Create``).

However, a few helpers are available for users to add these devices and channels

with only a few lines of code, if they are willing to use defaults, and the

helpers provide additional API to allow the passing of attribute values to

change default values. The scripts in ``src/examples`` can be browsed to see how

this is done.

YansWifiChannelHelper

+++++++++++++++++++++

The YansWifiChannelHelper has an unusual name. Readers may wonder why it is

named this way. The reference is to the `yans simulator

<http://cutebugs.net/files/wns2-yans.pdf>`_ from which this model is taken. The

helper can be used to create a WifiChannel with a default PropagationLoss and

PropagationDelay model.  Specifically, the default is a channel model with a

propagation delay equal to a constant, the speed of light, and a propagation

loss based on a log distance model with a reference loss of 46.6777 dB at

reference distance of 1m.

Users will typically type code such as:::

  YansWifiChannelHelper wifiChannelHelper = YansWifiChannelHelper::Default ();

  Ptr<WifiChannel> wifiChannel = wifiChannelHelper.Create ();

to get the defaults.  Note the distinction above in creating a helper object vs.

an actual simulation object.  In |ns3|, helper objects (used at the helper API

only) are created on the stack (they could also be created with operator new and

later deleted).  However, the actual |ns3| objects typically inherit from 

``class ns3::Object`` and are assigned to a smart pointer.  See the chapter in

the |ns3| manual for a discussion of the |ns3| object model, if you are not

familiar with it.

*Todo: Add notes about how to configure attributes with this helper API*

YansWifiPhyHelper

+++++++++++++++++

Physical devices (base class ``ns3::Phy``) connect to ``ns3::Channel`` models in

|ns3|.  We need to create Phy objects appropriate for the YansWifiChannel; here

the ``YansWifiPhyHelper`` will do the work.

The YansWifiPhyHelper class configures an object factory to create instances of

a ``YansWifiPhy`` and adds some other objects to it, including possibly a

supplemental ErrorRateModel and a pointer to a MobilityModel. The user code is

typically:::

  YansWifiPhyHelper wifiPhyHelper = YansWifiPhyHelper::Default ();

  wifiPhyHelper.SetChannel (wifiChannel);

Note that we haven't actually created any WifiPhy objects yet; we've just

prepared the YansWifiPhyHelper by telling it which channel it is connected to.

The phy objects are created in the next step.

NqosWifiMacHelper and QosWifiMacHelper

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The ``ns3::NqosWifiMacHelper`` and ``ns3::QosWifiMacHelper`` configure an

object factory to create instances of a ``ns3::WifiMac``. They are used to

configure MAC parameters like type of MAC.  

The former, ``ns3::NqosWifiMacHelper``, supports creation of MAC

instances that do not have 802.11e/WMM-style QoS support enabled. 

For example the following user code configures a non-QoS MAC that

will be a non-AP STA in an infrastructure network where the AP has

SSID ``ns-3-ssid``:::

    NqosWifiMacHelper wifiMacHelper = NqosWifiMacHelper::Default ();

    Ssid ssid = Ssid ("ns-3-ssid");

    wifiMacHelper.SetType ("ns3::StaWifiMac",

                          "Ssid", SsidValue (ssid),

                          "ActiveProbing", BooleanValue (false));

To create MAC instances with QoS support enabled,

``ns3::QosWifiMacHelper`` is used in place of

``ns3::NqosWifiMacHelper``.  This object can be also used to set:

* a MSDU aggregator for a particular Access Category (AC) in order to use 

  802.11n MSDU aggregation feature;

* block ack parameters like threshold (number of packets for which block ack

  mechanism should be used) and inactivity timeout.

The following code shows an example use of ``ns3::QosWifiMacHelper`` to 

create an AP with QoS enabled, aggregation on AC_VO, and Block Ack on AC_BE:::

  QosWifiMacHelper wifiMacHelper = QosWifiMacHelper::Default ();

  wifiMacHelper.SetType ("ns3::ApWifiMac",

                         "Ssid", SsidValue (ssid),

                         "BeaconGeneration", BooleanValue (true),

                         "BeaconInterval", TimeValue (Seconds (2.5)));

  wifiMacHelper.SetMsduAggregatorForAc (AC_VO, "ns3::MsduStandardAggregator",

                                        "MaxAmsduSize", UintegerValue (3839));

  wifiMacHelper.SetBlockAckThresholdForAc (AC_BE, 10);

  wifiMacHelper.SetBlockAckInactivityTimeoutForAc (AC_BE, 5);

WifiHelper

++++++++++

We're now ready to create WifiNetDevices. First, let's create

a WifiHelper with default settings:::

  WifiHelper wifiHelper = WifiHelper::Default ();

What does this do?  It sets the RemoteStationManager to

``ns3::ArfWifiManager``.

Now, let's use the wifiPhyHelper and wifiMacHelper created above to install WifiNetDevices

on a set of nodes in a NodeContainer "c":::

  NetDeviceContainer wifiContainer = WifiHelper::Install (wifiPhyHelper, wifiMacHelper, c);

This creates the WifiNetDevice which includes also a WifiRemoteStationManager, a

WifiMac, and a WifiPhy (connected to the matching WifiChannel).

There are many |ns3| attributes that can be set on the above helpers to

deviate from the default behavior; the example scripts show how to do some of

this reconfiguration.

AdHoc WifiNetDevice configuration 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This is a typical example of how a user might configure an adhoc network.

*To be completed*

Infrastructure (Access Point and clients) WifiNetDevice configuration 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This is a typical example of how a user might configure an access point and a

set of clients. 

*To be completed*

The WifiChannel and WifiPhy models

**********************************

The WifiChannel subclass can be used to connect together a set of

``ns3::WifiNetDevice`` network interfaces. The class ``ns3::WifiPhy`` is the

object within the WifiNetDevice that receives bits from the channel.  

For the channel propagation modeling, the propagation module is used; see section :ref:`Propagation` for details.

This section summarizes the description of the BER calculations found in the

yans paper taking into account the Forward Error Correction present in 802.11a

and describes the algorithm we implemented to decide whether or not a packet can

be successfully received. See `"Yet Another Network Simulator"

<http://cutebugs.net/files/wns2-yans.pdf>`_ for more details.

The PHY layer can be in one of three states:

#. TX: the PHY is currently transmitting a signal on behalf of its associated

   MAC

#. RX: the PHY is synchronized on a signal and is waiting until it has received

   its last bit to forward it to the MAC.

#. IDLE: the PHY is not in the TX or RX states.

When the first bit of a new packet is received while the PHY is not IDLE (that

is, it is already synchronized on the reception of another earlier packet or it

is sending data itself), the received packet is dropped. Otherwise, if the PHY

is IDLE, we calculate the received energy of the first bit of this new signal

and compare it against our Energy Detection threshold (as defined by the Clear

Channel Assessment function mode 1). If the energy of the packet k is higher,

then the PHY moves to RX state and schedules an event when the last bit of the

packet is expected to be received. Otherwise, the PHY stays in IDLE state and

drops the packet.

The energy of the received signal is assumed to be zero outside of the reception

interval of packet k and is calculated from the transmission power with a

path-loss propagation model in the reception interval.  where the path loss

exponent, :math:`n`, is chosen equal to :math:`3`, the reference distance,

:math:`d_0` is choosen equal to :math:`1.0m` and the reference energy is based

based on a Friis propagation model.

When the last bit of the packet upon which the PHY is synchronized is received,

we need to calculate the probability that the packet is received with any error

to decide whether or not the packet on which we were synchronized could be

successfully received or not: a random number is drawn from a uniform

distribution and is compared against the probability of error.

To evaluate the probability of error, we start from the piecewise linear 

functions shown in Figure :ref:`snir` and calculate the 

SNIR function. 

.. _snir:

.. figure:: figures/snir.*

   *SNIR function over time.*

From the SNIR function we can derive the Bit Error Rate (BER) and Packet Error Rate (PER) for the modulation and coding scheme being used for the transmission.  Please refer to [pei80211ofdm]_, [pei80211b]_ and [lacage2006yans]_ for a detailed description of the available BER/PER models.

WifiChannel configuration

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The WifiChannel implementation uses the propagation loss and delay models provided within the ns-3 *propagation* module.

The MAC model

*************

The 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function is used to calculate when to grant

access to the transmission medium. While implementing the DCF would have been

particularly easy if we had used a recurring timer that expired every slot, we

chose to use the method described in [ji2004sslswn]_

where the backoff timer duration is lazily calculated whenever needed since it

is claimed to have much better performance than the simpler recurring timer

solution.

The backoff procedure of DCF is described in section 9.2.5.2 of [ieee80211]_.

*  “The backoff procedure shall be invoked for a STA to transfer a frame 

   when finding the medium busy as indicated by either the physical or 

   virtual CS mechanism.”

*  “A backoff procedure shall be performed immediately after the end of 

   every transmission with the More Fragments bit set to 0 of an MPDU of 

   type Data, Management, or Control with subtype PS-Poll, even if no 

   additional transmissions are currently queued.”

Thus, if the queue is empty, a newly arrived packet should be transmitted 

immediately after channel is sensed idle for DIFS.  If queue is not empty 

and after a successful MPDU that has no more fragments, a node should 

also start the backoff timer.

Some users have observed that the 802.11 MAC with an empty queue on an 

idle channel will transmit the first frame arriving to the model 

immediately without waiting for DIFS or backoff, and wonder whether this 

is compliant.  According to the standard, “The backoff procedure shall 

be invoked for a STA to transfer a frame when finding the medium busy 

as indicated by either the physical or virtual CS mechanism.”  So in 

this case, the medium is not found to be busy in recent past and the 

station can transmit immediately. 

The higher-level MAC functions are implemented in a set of other C++ classes and

deal with:

* packet fragmentation and defragmentation,

* use of the rts/cts protocol,

* rate control algorithm,

* connection and disconnection to and from an Access Point,

* the MAC transmission queue,

* beacon generation,

* msdu aggregation,

* etc.

Wifi Attributes

***************

Should link to the list of attributes exported by Doxygen

Wifi Tracing

************

Should link to the list of traces exported by Doxygen

References

**********

.. [ieee80211] IEEE Std 802.11-2007 *Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications*

.. [pei80211b] \G. Pei and Tom Henderson, `Validation of ns-3 802.11b PHY model <http://www.nsnam.org/~pei/80211b.pdf>`__ 

.. [pei80211ofdm] \G. Pei and Tom Henderson, `Validation of OFDM error rate model in ns-3 <http://www.nsnam.org/~pei/80211ofdm.pdf>`__ 

.. [lacage2006yans] \M. Lacage and T. Henderson, `Yet another Network Simulator <http://cutebugs.net/files/wns2-yans.pdf>`__ 

.. [ji2004sslswn] \Z. Ji, J. Zhou, M. Takai and R. Bagrodia, *Scalable simulation of large-scale wireless networks with bounded inaccuracies*, in Proc. of the Seventh ACM Symposium on Modeling, Analysis and Simulation of Wireless and Mobile Systems, October 2004.