Go Faster WLAN 802.

11n
Jakob Strm, Jing Wang, Elpidoforos Arapantonis, Sareh Talebi
Chalmers University of
Tecnhology, Gteborg
Email: {jakstr, jingwa, elpara, sareht}@student.chalmers.se

AbstractThe 802.11n protocol is an enhancement from the

ten year older protocols 802.11b and 802.11g. The major change
is the drastic increase in throughput - from 54 MBps to up to
600 MBps, depending on what optional parts of the protocol are
used. This paper is the outcome of a project made to determine
and analyze the parts of the 802.11n protocol that is responsible
for the speed increase. The first part of the paper contains a
litterature study and provides background information about
802.11n as well as comparisons to previous protocols.
The second part contains the setup and results of various tests
using a regular access point in the 2.4 GHz band intended for
domestic use. The tests are made by transfering files from one
computer to another using the access point. The tests were able to
get results for the increase of using a Short Guard Interval (SGI)
which proved to be 5% on average and 11% maximum. Testing
double channels of 40 MHz failed due to nearby disturbance of
a legacy WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) which supports
the conclusion that using 40 MHz channels in the 2.4 GHz is not
recommended.

I. I NTRODUCTION
Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) is an industrial term of 802.11
IEEE Standard that released in 1997. Like cell phones and
Televisions, 802.11 uses radio waves to provide a reliable,
fast and secure wireless connection. This connection can be
provided between electronic devices to each other, to Internet
and even to a wired Ethernet network. [1]
Communication through a wireless network is similar to a
two-way radio communication. Using an antenna, a computers
wireless adapter encodes data into a radio signal and transmits
it to a wireless router, or access point. This router receives the
signal and decodes it. To provide internet to the network, the
router can be connected to the Internet by means of a Digital
Subscriber Line (DSL) modem or a cable. Typically, it covers
an area with 61 meters length around the router and obviously
serves a better service to the computers closer to the router.
[2]
The 802.11 standards focus on the two bottom levels of the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) model.
Maximum data rate of 2 Mbps supported by Wi-Fi was
too slow for most applications. Over time the 802.11 family
progressed and represented several versions.
Since the first part of this paper is intended to peruse data
rate improvement in 802.11n it is vital to have a general
knowledge of its previous versions. The following protocols
are the ones that improve speed. [3]

A. 802.11a - 1999
This protocol is a Physical Layer (PHY) standard. It supports data rate up to 54 Mbps. It uses Orthogonal Frequency
Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modulation. Operating in the 5
GHz radio frequency band there is less risk for radio frequency
Interference compared to following protocols. On the other
hand, utilizing this radio frequency means that it provides a
narrow network as well higher obstruction by obstacles such
as walls. Due to its higher cost, 802.11a is usually used by
corporations. The network can cover an area with a radius of
30 meters. 802.11a uses Binary Phase Shift Keying modulation
(BPSK), Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK), 16-QAM
(Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) and 64-QAM sub-carrier.
The total band width is 20 MHz. [1]
B. 802.11b - 1999
802.11b supports a maximum throughput of 11 Mbps which
although lower than that of 802.11a is still comparable to the
wired Ethernet. It utilizes 2.4 GHz radio signaling frequency
which is same as the original 802.11 standard. Although it
solves the problem of penetrating obstructions, most of the
home appliances like microwave ovens and cordless phones
use the same frequency band. Consequently this protocol
suffers the interference problem. Low price of this frequency
motivates vendors to prefer using it to lower their production
costs. 802.11b can an area with a radius of 300 meters. [1] To
provide higher data rates, 802.11b uses CCK (Complementary
Code Keying) which is a modulation technique that makes
efficient use of the radio spectrum. [3] Since 802.11a and
802.11b use different frequencies, it is said that they are
compatible which means they can be implemented side by
side not together. In fact, each connected device can merely
use one. [1] The 802.11b specification affects only the physical
C. 802.11g - 2003
802.11g is the third version of the 802.11 series. It uses
the best parts of its predecessors. Consequently, it supports
the data rate up to 54 Mbps like 802.11a, and uses a radio
frequency of 2.4 GHz like 802.11b. Although this frequency
band would not be obstructed, the problem of interference of
home appliances still resists. The 802.11g standard is said to
be backwards-compatible with the 802.11b standard, which
means the devices that support the 802.11g standard can also
work with 802.11b. [1] Since access points using 802.11g use
OFDM, they cannot hear 802.11b. A mixture of 802.11b and

802.11g requires RTS / CTS (Request-To-Send / Clear-ToSend) to avoid collision. These messages provide substantial
overhead and lowers outcome significantly for both 802.11b
and 802.11g users. [3] Like 802.11a, 802.11g uses OFDM
modulation scheme and supports data rates of 6, 9, 12, 18,
24, 36, 48, and 54 Mbps. It reverts to complementary code
keying (CCK) (like the 802.11b standard) for 5.5 and 11
Mbps. Differential Binary Phase Shift Keying (DBPSK) modulation, Differential Quaternary Phase-Shift Keying (DQPSK)
modulation and Direct-Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)
modulation technique are used in 1 and 2 Mbps data rate.
[1]
D. 802.11n - 2009
802.11n not only dramatically increases WLAN speed by
more than 10 times up to 600 Mbps but also improves reliability and extends the range of wireless transmission. Although
the Multiple Input / Multiple Output (MIMO) technology plays
the most significant role - boosting the speed with a factor of 4,
there are some other changes in comparison with the previous
versions. The next parts of this paper will be an analysis of
these improvements.

Fig. 1.

DPZ Allocation Diagram [4]

This section will cover the smaller improvements that together increase the bitrate from 54 Mbps to 72 Mbps. The parts
that are improved are DPZ (Data, Pilot, Zero), BCC (Binary
Convolutional Code) and SGI (Short Guard Interval). [4]

which is removing some of the redundant bits. The parameter

that is responsible for the removal of the redundant bits is the
coding rate. The definition of the coding rate can be expressed,
as the number of data bits transmitted as a ratio of the total
number of coded bits. As an example a convolutional code
with R=3/4 has only 25% of thee bitsredundant [5], [6]
The improvement in 802.11n in comparison with the older
protocols, is on the puncturing because we can use 40% with
R = 5/6 and as a result of this is to increase the data rate from
58.5Mbps to 65Mbps. [4]

A. Data Pilot Zero

C. Short Guard Interval

Data, Pilot, Zero is a way to increase the data rate, by

discarding some zeros between the channels. In Figure 1, the
DATA frequencies are represented with blue color, the PILOT
frequencies in red color and finally between the channels we
have the ZERO frequencies. [4]
The DATA frequencies are carrying the data of the transmission, PILOT frequencies-signals are used, for synchronization
or control reasons and usually have a single frequency. In
802.11n 4 sub-carriers, used as PILOT for phase and frequency tracking and training . [1] Finally the ZERO are some
frequencies which are not include any data inside them, and
thats why we represent them with zeros. [1]
In the older protocols (802.11a/g), between the channels the
gap was 11 ZERO frequencies, but in the 802.11n, this number
is decreased in 7 ZERO frequencies. With this change the data
rate is improved from 54 Mbps to 58.5 Mbps. [4]

The last improvement is the implementation of the SGI

(Short Guard Interval). The GI (Guard Interval) is the time
space between 2 OFDM symbols (Figure 2). We add this
time space between them because during the transmission
echoes, or reflections from other signals or environmental
parameters could occur and this could lead, to ISI (Intersymbol
Interference), which is the result when one symbol interfere
with another. [1]
The procedure to create a GI is not complicated because
it is uses the output of the IDFT (Inverse Discrete Fourier
Transform) of the signal. In the older protocols a percentage of
this output (25%) it is attached from the end to the beginning
of the symbol. [4]
In 802.11n the data symbol has 4s duration, which is the
sum of the 800 ns of GI plus 3.2s of data. As an optional
imrpovement SGI can be activated to increase the data rate. [4]
SGI reduces the 800 ns GI to a 400 ns GI, which boosts the
data rate by 11%. Instead of attaching the 25% of the output
of the IDFT, in 802.11n only attaches 12.5%. [1], [4]

II. S MALL I MPROVEMENTS

B. Binary Convolutional Code

Another improvement is the BCC. In telecommunication
these codes are used as a type of controlling the data transmission. If we want to analyze more, we can say that permit
reliable communication of an information sequence over a
channel, which has noise, and provokes the distortion of the
transmitted signal. [5]
So the function of this code is to protect the information,
by adding redundant bits. After the BCC exist a puncturer

III. OFDM AND BANDWIDTH INCREASE

A. OFDM
DPZ and GI are part of OFDM and to understand these
parts as well as OFDM, it is important to first understand
FDM (Frequency Division Multiplexing).

IV. M ULTIPLE I NPUT M ULTIPLE O UTPUT

Fig. 2.

Guard Interval [7]

When transmitting over a channel, one can using FDM

divide the channel into smaller sub-carriers. Since the single
carrier is split up, this means that the data stream must be
modulated across these sub-carriers. For example, if a subcarrier experiences fading at some point that sub-carrier can
be amplified without affecting other sub-carriers, or less data
could be sent over it. [1]
For FDM to be possible the sub-carriers have to be nonoverlapping with each other. This means introducing a guard
band between each pair of sub-carriers which will spread them
out over the channel. The downside of this is that a significant
amount of bandwidth will be unused to serve as separators.
In OFDM, each sub-carriers are transmitted in mutually
orthogonal frequencies, meaning that the top of one sub-carrier
will coincide with the null of an adjacent sub-carrier. Because
of this, there will be no ISI between them which diminishes the
need for a guard band. This way a larger part of the band can
be used for transmitting data thereby increasing the Spectral
Efficiency of the channel.
B. Bandwidth Increase
802.11n is the first of the 802.11-series that allows merging
two adjacent 20 MHz channels as one 40 MHz channel. This
effectivly doubles the throughput, and is the change that gives
the second largest increase in throughput in 802.11n, after
MIMO. The 2.4 GHz band has room for one 40 MHz channel,
while the 5 GHz band can fit 11 non-overlapping channels.
This makes the 5 GHz band vastly superior, although the 2.4
GHz band is still useful to provide legacy support. [8]
Of course, having channels that are twice as wide as before
will limit the amount of channels that are available. However,
the cost of the equipment is barely increased with this change,
and as long as there is enough free spectrum the bandwidth
increase is the easiest and most efficient change in 802.11n
[1].
If the limitation on the number of channels proves to be a
problem, 20 MHz can be used since the increase is optional.
There may also be a problem with interference using 40 MHz
channels in the 2.4 GHz band, as is shown in the testing later
in this paper.

The final part of the study is going to be about Multiple

Input Multiple Output (MIMO), which is the most important
improvement of the data transfer rate in the 802.11n and boosts
the speed up to four times (4x4 MIMO). [9]
MIMO technology is used in 802.11n to evolve the existing
OFDM physical interface presently implemented with legacy
802.11a/g. MIMO exploits the use of multiple signals transmitted into the wireless medium and multiple signals received
from the wireless medium to improve wireless performance.
[4]
MIMO can provide many benefits, all derived from the
ability to process spatially different signals simultaneously.
Two important benefits explored here are antenna diversity to
improve system performance and spatial multiplexing used to
significantly increase data rate. [9] Using multiple antennas,
MIMO enables the opportunity to spatially resolve multipath
signals, providing diversity gain that contributes to a receivers
ability to recover the intelligent information.
Another valuable opportunity MIMO technology provides
is Spatial Division Multiplexing (SDM). [9] SDM spatially
multiplexes multiple independent data streams, transferred
simultaneously within one spectral channel of bandwidth.
MIMO SDM can significantly increase data throughput as the
number of resolved spatial data streams are increased. Please
refer to Figure 3.

Fig. 3.

Basic MIMO system diagram [4]

Consider the Basic MIMO system diagram in Figure 3. A

compressed digital source is fed into a simplified transmitting
block with the functions of error control coding and mapping
to complex modulation symbols. The latter produces several
separate symbol streams which are independent. Each is then
mapped onto one of the multiple TX antennas. Mapping may
include linear spatial weighting of the antenna elements or
linear antenna space-time precoding. After frequency conversion and amplification, the signals are launched into the
wireless channel. At the receiver, the signals are captured by
possibly multiple antennas and demodulation and demapping
operations are performed to recover the message. The level of
intelligence, complexity, and a priori channel knowledge used
in selecting the coding and antenna can be varies depend one
real system requirement. [9]
In order to implement MIMO system into 802.11n, some
new function blocks are introduced such as Stream Parser (SP)
and Spatial Mapper (SM). It is showed in Figure 4. All these
new blocks are aimed to improve the system performance in
an intelligent way. At the end, the data rate in 802.11n can
be boosted up to four times to 600 Mbps which is a huge
improvment compared to the previous protocols.

Fig. 4.

Impletemented blocks for MIMO (4 x 4) [4]

V. T ESTING

C. Test III: 40 MHz

The last test involves increasing the channel bandwidth from
20 MHz to 40 MHz.
40 MHz
SGI (Short Guard Interval) 400 ns
2x2 MIMO
Doubling the bandwidth provides an increase of 100% in
throughput which brings the expected theoretical throughput
up to 300 Mbps.
VI. T EST RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

To find out how much difference the optimizations in the

new protocol would do in practice, the second part of the
project involved testing using two computers and an access
point. The access point was a Netgear WN802Tv2 supporting
802.11n-draft in the 2.4 GHz band. It was placed in the middle
of two computers placed 25 meters from each other. The
test was done by transfering a large file for a duration of
approximately two minutes from one computer to the other,
and using a network traffic monitoring tool to measure the
throughput.
The test was set up in a basement of Chalmers with thick
concrete walls to attempt to limit the amount of radio signals
from other WLANs. The signal strength of the large NOMADnetwork was barely noticable, below -80 dB. However the
signal of a smaller 802.11g network in an adjacent room was
measured to -69 dB which proved to be fatal to one of the
tests.
The tests were made by turning the optional settings of
802.11n on and off using configuration settings in the software
of the access point. In this access point, there exists configurations for GI and channel bandwidth but unfortunately there
was no way to alter MIMO-settings, so all of the tests were
conducted with 2x2 MIMO.
Fig. 5. Results of Test I and II. First curve is Test I, second curve is Test II.

A. Test I: Default test

The first test used the following settings:

20 MHz
LGI (Long Guard Interval) 800 ns
2x2 MIMO

The theoretical speed of 802.11n using none of the optional

settings is 65 Mbps, and using 2x2 MIMO increases this speed
by 100% to 130 Mbps.
B. Test II: Short Guard Interval
The second test involved using the same settings as before,
but using a short guard interval of 400 ns:

20 MHz
SGI (Short Guard Interval) 400 ns
2x2 MIMO

Using SGI over LGI gives a theoretical increase of 11% [1]

bringing throughput up to a maximum of 144.4 Mbps.

The results of Test I and II can be viewed in Figure 5.

The throughput of Test I was measured to an average of
approximately 25.5 Mbps with a maximum of 26.3 Mbps.
Test II measured a slightly higher throughput of 27 Mbps on
average and a maximum of 29.3 Mbps. This means that the
average bit rate was increased by 5%, and the maximum by
11%, the latter being the theoretical increase of using SGI.
The reasons why the measured bit rate is so much lower than
the expected theoretical bit rate are that there other WLANs
present - albeit with low signal strength. Also, the walls of the
corridor reflected the test signals which provided even more
obstruction.
Studying the curves further, one can see that the curve of
Test II was more unstable than that of Test I. This might point
to the downside of using a short guard interval which is the
fact that it is more likely that ISI is introduced leading to a
higher error rate.
Test III using 40 MHz channels did not render any result at
all due to that it proved to be impossible to get a stable enough

connection to be able to transfer files. Pinging one computer

from the other showed a 50-80% packet loss. This can be
explained by the presence of the other 802.11g networks. It

Fig. 6. Figure of the three non-overlapping 20 MHz channels (red blocks) of

the 2.4 GHz band, as well as the right-most and left-most 40 MHz channels
(green blocks).

turns out that the presence of a 802.11g network can degrade

the signal of a 802.11n network by up to 85% [10]. As can be
seen in Figure 6, any 40 MHz channel covers a large part
of the 2.4 GHz band. Since channel 1, 6 and 11 are the
three non-overlapping 20 MHz channels they are also the most
commonly used. Channel 6 being in the middle overlaps with
all of the 40 MHz channels and therefore heavily obstructs the
802.11n network despite having a low signal strength. This fact
along with the fact that there is only one non-overlapping 40
MHz available in the 2.4 GHz band, makes this band lacking
for full use of 802.11n.
To sum up, the following improvements make up for the
throughput increase of 802.11n.
1) Using MIMO. Data rate is increased by 100% for every
additional antenna used.
2) Decreasing the number of zeros in the DPZ part.
3) Increasing the puncturing from 25% in 802.11g to 40%
in 802.11n in the BCC part.
4) Using spatial multiplexing which means that multiple
data streams are transmitted at the same time and on the
same channel.
5) Using Channel bonding which means combining two
adjacent channels, effectively doubles the amount of
available bandwidth. However, using double channels
(40 MHz) in the 2.4 GHz band is not recommended
as the network will become easily obstructed by any
presence of legacy WLAN.
6) Using an SGI of 400 ns instead of an LGI of 800 ns.
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A PPENDIX
R EVIEW QUESTION
Q: What are the two most significant changes with the new
WLAN protocol 802.11n that make up for the speed increase
up to 600 Mbps?
A: A bandwidth increase from 20 MHz to 40 MHz and the
introduction of MIMO.