Published October 15, 2025 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Wireless Evolution: IEEE 802.11N, 802.11AC, and 802.11AX Performance Comparison

Description

The widespread adoption of IEEE 802.11 WLANs is attributed to their inherent mobility, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. Within the IEEE 802 working group, a dedicated task group is diligently advancing WLAN technologies, particularly tailored for dense network scenarios. Amidst these advancements, the 802.11ac protocols have emerged as a preferred choice, delivering superior data transfer rates compared to the preceding 802.11n standard. Significantly, the sixth-generation wireless protocol, IEEE 802.11ax, has been introduced, showcasing enhanced performance capabilities that outpace its fifth-generation predecessor, 802.11ac.In this pioneering investigation, we engage in an in-depth simulation-based scrutiny of prominentWLAN protocols—namely, IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11ac, and the cutting-edge IEEE 802.11ax. Our exhaustive analyses traverse a spectrum of critical metrics, encompassing throughput, coverage, spectral efficiency, Tx/Rx gain, and Tx/Rx power.In a single-user and SISO scenario, both 802.11ac and 802.11ax outperform 802.11n. Significantly, 802.11ax surpasses the previous 802.11n/ac standards, highlighting substantial advancements in wireless performance.

Files

14124ijans02.pdf

Files (1.1 MB)

Name Size Download all
md5:33e0a67d5b8170f5676151271632c8b9
1.1 MB Preview Download

Additional details

Identifiers

URL
https://aircconline.com/ijans/V14N1/14124ijans02.pdf

Related works

Documents
https://aircconline.com/ijans/V14N1/14124ijans02.pdf (URL)

Dates

Copyrighted
2024

References

  • [1] S. K. Debnath, P. K. Sarker, M. M. Islam, and I. Pramanik, "Investigation and Evaluation of IEEE 802.11n WLANs Link Features Performance Under Single Host and Concurrent Communication," Int. J. AdHocNetw. Syst., vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 1–13, 2021, doi: 10.5121/ijans.2021.11101. [2] M. S. Gast, 802.11ac: A Survival Guide. [3] S. Moghe and R. Upadhyay, "Comparison of SISO and MIMO techniques in 802.11n wireless local area network," 2009 Int. Conf. Emerg. Trends Electron. Photonic Devices Syst. ELECTRO '09, pp. 245–246, 2009, doi: 10.1109/electro.2009.5441127. [4] N. Shahin, R. Ali, S. W. Kim, and Y.-T. Kim, "Cognitive backoff mechanism for IEEE802.11ax highefficiency WLANs," J. Commun. Networks, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 158–167, 2019, doi: 10.1109/jcn.2019.000022. [5] Cisco, "802.11ac: The Fifth Generation of Wi-Fi". [6] R. Ali, S. W. Kim, B. S. Kim, and Y. Park, "Design of MAC Layer Resource Allocation Schemes for IEEE 802.11ax: Future Directions," IETE Tech. Rev. (Institution Electron. Telecommun. Eng. India), vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 28–52, 2018, doi: 10.1080/02564602.2016.1242387. [7] Q. Qu et al., "Survey and Performance Evaluation of the Upcoming Next Generation WLANs Standard - IEEE 802.11ax," Mob. Networks Appl., vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 1461–1474, 2019, doi: 10.1007/s11036-019-01277-9. [8] A. Malhotra, M. Maity, and A. Dutta, "How much can we reuse? An empirical analysis of the performance benefits achieved by spatial-reuse of IEEE 802.11ax," 2019 11th Int. Conf. Commun. Syst. Networks, COMSNETS 2019, vol. 2061, pp. 432–435, 2019, doi: 10.1109/COMSNETS.2019.8711404. [9] Y. Daldoul, D. E. Meddour, and A. Ksentini, "Performance evaluation of OFDMA and MU-MIMO in 802.11ax networks," Comput. Networks, vol. 182, no. February, p. 107477, 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.comnet.2020.107477. [10] M. S. Kuran, A. Dilmac, O. Topal, B. Yamansavascilar, S. Avallone, and T. Tugcu, "Throughputmaximizing OFDMA Scheduler for IEEE 802.11ax Networks," IEEE Int. Symp. Pers. Indoor Mob. Radio Commun. PIMRC, vol. 2020-Augus, 2020, doi: 10.1109/PIMRC48278.2020.9217366. [11] A. Masiukiewicz, "Throughput comparison between the new hew 802.11ax standard and 802.11n/ac standards in selected distance windows," Int. J. Electron. Telecommun., vol. 65, no. 1, pp. 79–84, 2019, doi: 10.24425/ijet.2019.126286. [12] G. Naik, S. Bhattarai, and J. J. Park, "Performance Analysis of Uplink Multi-User OFDMA in IEEE 802 . 11ax," IEEE Int. Conf. Commun., pp. 1–6, 2018. [13] R. W. S. and M. K. W.-C. K. ted Kyaw Soe Lwin , Nobuo Funabiki *, Sumon Kumar Debnath , Ismael Munene Kwenga, "Enhancements of minimax access-point setup optimisation approach for IEEE 802 . 11 WLAN," vol. 9, no. 1, 2019. [14] Fabián Frommel; Germán Capdehourat; Benigno Rodríguez, "Performance Analysis of Wi-Fi Networks based on IEEE 802.11ax and the Coexistence with Legacy IEEE 802.11n Standard," Montevideo, Uruguay: IEEE, 2021. [15] J. Zhang, S. Avallone, and D. M. Blough, "Implementation and Evaluation of IEEE 802.11ax Channel Sounding Frame Exchange in ns-3," 2023. [16] M. Shahwaiz Afaqui, E. Garcia-Villegas, and E. Lopez-Aguilera, "Contributions to the evolution of next generation WLANs," TDX (Tesis Dr. enXarxa), no. March, 2017, [Online]. Available: https://upcommons.upc.edu/handle/2117/109818 [17] M. S. Afaqui, E. Garcia-Villegas, and E. Lopez-Aguilera, "IEEE 802.11ax: Challenges and Requirements for Future High Efficiency WiFi," IEEE Wirel. Commun., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 130–137, 2016, doi: 10.1109/MWC.2016.1600089WC. [18] M. Shahwaiz Afaqui, E. Garcia-Villegas, E. Lopez-Aguilera, and D. Camps-Mur, "Dynamic Sensitivity Control of Access Points for IEEE 802.11ax UPC-BarcelonaTech i2CAT Foundation," 2016. [19] D. Deng, K. Chen, and R. Cheng, "IEEE 802 . 11ax : Next Generation Wireless Local Area Networks," vol. 1. [20] M. D. Hossain et al., "Comparative Performance Analysis of the IEEE802.11ax and 802.11ac MIMOLink for WLANs," Int. J. AdHocNetw. Syst., vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 01–20, 2023, doi: 10.5121/ijans.2023.13401. [21] A. F. Rochim and R. F. Sari, "Performance comparison of IEEE 802.11n and IEEE 802.11ac," Proceeding - 2016 Int. Conf. Comput. Control. Informatics its Appl. Recent Prog. Comput. Control. Informatics Data Sci. IC3INA 2016, no. October 2016, pp. 54–59, 2017, doi: 10.1109/IC3INA.2016.7863023. [22] C. A. Grazia, "IEEE 802.11n/ac Wireless Network Efficiency under different TCP Congestion Controls," Int. Conf. Wirel. Mob. Comput. Netw. Commun., vol. 2019-Octob, pp. 288–293, 2019, doi: 10.1109/WiMOB.2019.8923418. [23] R. B. M. Abdelrahman, A. B. A. Mustafa, and A. A. Osman, "A Comparison Between IEEE 802.11a, b, g, n And ac Standards," IOSR J. Comput. Eng., vol. 17, no. 5, pp. 26–29, 2015, doi: 10.9790/0661- 17533034. [24] M. Natkaniec, Ł. Prasnal, and M. Szymakowski, "A performance analysis of IEEE 802.11ax networks," Int. J. Electron. Telecommun., vol. 66, no. 1, pp. 225–230, 2020, doi: 10.24425/ijet.2020.131867. [25] B. Bellalta, "IEEE 802.11ax: High-efficiency WLANS," IEEE Wirel. Commun., vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 38–46, 2016, doi: 10.1109/MWC.2016.7422404. [26] T. Kaewkiriya, "Performance Comparison of Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11ac and Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11n," 2017. [27] R. Kajihara, H. Wenkai, L. Lanante, M. Kurosaki, and H. Ochi, "Performance analysis model of IEEE 802.11 CSMA/CA for Multi-BSS environment," IEEE Int. Symp. Pers. Indoor Mob. Radio Commun. PIMRC, vol. 2020-Augus, 2020, doi: 10.1109/PIMRC48278.2020.9217235. [28] K. Pahlavan and P. Krishnamurthy, "Evolution and Impact of Wi-Fi Technology and Applications: A Historical Perspective," Int. J. Wirel. Inf. Networks, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 3–19, 2021, doi: 10.1007/s10776-020-00501-8. [29] and J. B.-J. Jeisson S. Sanchez-Mahecha, Sandra Cespedes, "QoS Evaluation of the Future HighEfficiency IEEE 802.11ax WLAN Standard". [30] M. Natkaniec and N. Bieryt, "An Analysis of the Mixed IEEE 802.11ax Wireless Networks in the 5 GHz Band," Sensors, vol. 23, no. 10, 2023, doi: 10.3390/s23104964. [31] E. Iman and A. Abdrabou, "An Experimental Comparative Performance Study of Different WiFi Standards for Smart Cities Outdoor Environments," New York, NY, NY, USA: IEEE, 2022. doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/UEMCON54665.2022.9965626.