The impact of channel bonding on 802.11n network management

Abstract

The IEEE 802.11n standard allows wireless devices to operate on 40MHz-width channels by doubling their channel width fromstandard 20MHz channels, a concept called channel bonding. Increasing channelwidth should increase bandwidth, but it comes at the cost of decreased transmission range and greater susceptibility to interference. However, with the incorporation of MIMO Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) technology in 802.11n, devices can now exploit the increased transmission rates from wider channels at a reduced sacrifice to signal quality and range. The goal of our work is to understand the characteristics of channel bonding in 802.11n networks and the factors that influence that behavior to ultimately be able to predict behavior so that network performance is maximized. We discuss the impact of channel bonding choices as well as the effects of both cochannel and adjacent channel interference on network performance. We discover that intelligent channel bonding decisions rely not only on a link’s signal quality, but also on the strength of neighboring links and their physical rates.