3rd International ICST Conference on Testbeds and Research Infrastructures for the Development of Networks and Communities (TridentCom)

Research Article

Integrating multiuser dynamic OFDMA into IEEE 802.11a and prototyping it on a real-time software-defined radio testbed

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  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.1109/TRIDENTCOM.2007.4444671,
        author={Hermann S. Lichte and Stefan Valentin and Falk Eitzen and Matthias Stege and Carsten Unger and Holger Karl},
        title={Integrating multiuser dynamic OFDMA into IEEE 802.11a and prototyping it on a real-time software-defined radio testbed},
        proceedings={3rd International ICST Conference on Testbeds and Research Infrastructures for the Development of Networks and Communities (TridentCom)},
        proceedings_a={TRIDENTCOM},
        year={2010},
        month={5},
        keywords={},
        doi={10.1109/TRIDENTCOM.2007.4444671}
    }
    
  • Hermann S. Lichte
    Stefan Valentin
    Falk Eitzen
    Matthias Stege
    Carsten Unger
    Holger Karl
    Year: 2010
    Integrating multiuser dynamic OFDMA into IEEE 802.11a and prototyping it on a real-time software-defined radio testbed
    TRIDENTCOM
    IEEE
    DOI: 10.1109/TRIDENTCOM.2007.4444671
Hermann S. Lichte1,*, Stefan Valentin1,*, Falk Eitzen1,*, Matthias Stege2,*, Carsten Unger2,*, Holger Karl1,*
  • 1: University of Paderborn, Warburger Str. 100, 33098 Paderborn, Germany
  • 2: Signalion GmbH, Sudhausweg 5, 01099 Dresden, Germany
*Contact email: hermann.lichte@upb.de, stefanv@upb.de, folk@upb.de, matthias.stege@signalion.com, carsten.unger@signalion.com, holger.karl@upb.de

Abstract

Multiuser dynamic orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) can achieve high downlink capacities in future wireless networks by optimizing the subcarrier allocation for each user.When it comes to the integration into current wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, dynamic OFDMA raises several implementation issueswhich are neglected in theoretical papers. Putting this emerging approach into practice requires to treat these issues accordingly and to demonstrate the feasibility of the system design. In this paper, we propose a dynamic OFDMA integration for the physical layer of the widespread IEEE 802.11a standard. To test our implementation and demonstrate its practical relevance we use a pragmatic approach: We prototype multiuser dynamic OFDMA on a real-time software-defined radio testbed for WLANs. We discuss details of our implementation and provide measurements showing that it does not introduce significant overhead into the IEEE 802.11a system at high subcarrier allocation quality. We particularly focus on the problems of our integration as well as the concepts and limitations of the used testbed.