Analysis and design of the next generation IEEE 802.11 WLAN system

Abstract

Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) is wireless communication system which provides data transfer services between devices through wireless channel within 100~200m local ranges. After the first standard named IEEE 802.11 had published in 1999, this wireless communication technology continue to be evolved over a decade. One of important trend in WLAN is high data rate. Based on IEEE 802.11n recently published in 2010, up to 450Mbps Medium Access Control (MAC) layer throughput is provided with 600Mbps physical (PHY) layer rate. Furthermore, the standard group already start to research for the next generation WLAN standard, which is very high throughput (VHT) standard. This will support 1.75Gbps PHY rate. As a consequence, the implementation technique becomes important together. In this paper, the technology to implement system-on-chip (SoC) which can provide 1.065Gbps MAC throughput under 1.75Gbps PHY rate is studied. In order to satisfy every requirement of system, SystemC based system-level design technique is used. SoC platform is modeled by system level and the architecture is refined by architecture level simulation. Another important issue is the software implementation of WLAN system. Because WLAN system provides high data rate, it is difficult to implement using software. However, from the development of multi-processor SoC technology, it becomes more feasible to implement WLAN system using software. In this dissertation, the research to implement cyclic redundancy check (CRC) using multi-processors is included. Here, CRC is one of the most complex block in MAC layer.