©Rohde & Schwarz; IEEE 802.11Ax Technology Introduction
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IEEE 802.11ax TECHNOLOGY INTRODUCTION White paper | Version 01.00 | Lisa Ward CONTENTS 1 Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3 2 IEEE 802.11ax core documents ............................................................................................................3 3 IEEE 802.11ax goals and features ........................................................................................................4 4 IEEE 802.11ax (high efficiency PHY) ...................................................................................................5 4.1 PPDU formats ................................................................................................................................................6 4.2 From single user to multiple users (MU) .....................................................................................................8 4.2.1 Subcarrier types ...........................................................................................................................................11 4.2.1.1 Unused subcarriers ......................................................................................................................................11 4.2.1.2 Data subcarriers ...........................................................................................................................................11 4.2.1.3 Pilot subcarriers ............................................................................................................................................12 4.2.2 OFDMA downlink resource unit assignments .............................................................................................13 4.2.3 OFDMA uplink resource unit assignments ...................................................................................................18 4.2.3.1 Contents of trigger frame common field ......................................................................................................18 4.2.3.2 Contents of trigger frame user field .............................................................................................................18 5 IEEE 802.11ax measurements ............................................................................................................22 5.1 IEEE 802.11ax transmitter specification ....................................................................................................22 5.1.1 Transmit spectrum mask ..............................................................................................................................22 5.1.2 Spectral flatness ...........................................................................................................................................23 5.1.3 Transmitter modulation accuracy .................................................................................................................24 5.1.3.1 Transmitter local oscillator (LO) leakage ......................................................................................................24 5.1.3.2 Error vector magnitude .................................................................................................................................25 5.2 HE receiver requirements ...........................................................................................................................31 5.2.1 Receiver minimum input sensitivity .............................................................................................................31 5.2.2 Adjacent and nonadjacent channel rejection ..............................................................................................31 5.2.3 Receiver maximum input level .....................................................................................................................32 5.3 HE trigger based PPDU precorrection specifications ...............................................................................33 5.3.1 Transmit power accuracy and RSSI ..............................................................................................................33 5.3.2 Carrier frequency offset (CFO) error and timing drift ...................................................................................33 6 References...........................................................................................................................................34 7 Abbreviations/acronyms/initialisms ..................................................................................................35 This white paper introduces the technology used in the IEEE 802.11ax amendment to the IEEE 802.11 standard and gives an overview of receiver and transmitter test requirements. IEEE 802.11ax, also known as high efficiency wireless (HEW), provides mechanisms to more efficiently utilize the unlicensed spectrum bands (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz) and improve user experience. 2 1 INTRODUCTION IEEE 802.11 is the IEEE working group developing wireless local area network specifications. The group began work in the late 1990s and since then has created several successful standards/amendments, including IEEE 802.11a, b and g. WLAN is now ubiquitous, with one or more WLAN technologies included as standard capabilities on most laptops and many smartphones. The IEEE 802.11 group has continued to build and improve on the earlier IEEE 802.11a/b and g with the official approval of IEEE 802.11n in 2009 and IEEE 802.11ac in 2013. There is a drawback to this success, however. Because WLAN is everywhere, it is common to find many access points and stations located in dense locations such as apartment buildings and stadiums. Since WLAN uses spectrum in the unlicensed ISM band, it is likely that several connections may interfere each other and cause some capacity crunch. There is no common scheduler in WLAN, and the channel access uses a CSMA scheme that has some drawbacks in high occupancy scenarios. In addition, users utilize WLAN for many different applications such as video streaming and offloading. To accommodate the challenging applications and the large number of WLAN users in dense locations, the IEEE 802.11 working group formed the high efficiency wireless (HEW) study group in 2013 to find ways to improve the user experience for these applications and to more efficiently use the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz spectrum. In March 2014, the HEW study group became an official task group, Task Group IEEE 802.11ax, to develop the IEEE 802.11ax amendment to IEEE 802.11-2016. This white paper contains four parts: 1. Core documents for the IEEE 802.11ax amendment development 2. IEEE 802.11ax goals and features 3. Technology overview that covers key parts of the IEEE 802.11ax draft 4. Test requirements for measuring key metrics such as EVM and adjacent channel rejection 2 IEEE 802.11ax CORE DOCUMENTS Much of the information in this paper comes from two key IEEE 802.11ax core docu- ments. The IEEE 802.11ax draft and the IEEE 802.11ax specification framework document version 17. The IEEE 802.11ax amendment draft [1] contains the proposed changes to IEEE 802.11- 2016 in order to meet the IEEE 802.11ax requirements and goals. These changes include a new clause for the PHY specifications and a new MAC clause for supporting the new PHY features. In addition, the IEEE 802.11ax amendment contains modifications to the current IEEE 802.11 MAC layer in order to maintain compatibility with legacy devices. The 802.11ax amendment is expected to be published end of 2020. The IEEE 802.11ax specification framework document contains the features and require- ments that were agreed to by the IEEE 802.11ax task group members and is used as the framework or outline of the IEEE 802.11ax amendment. The specification framework document can be obtained by all at this link: https://mentor.ieee.org/802.11/dcn/15/11-15-0132-17-00ax-spec-framework.docx While all IEEE 802.11ax draft versions are only available to voting members of the IEEE 802.11 working group, the IEEE 802.11ax draft v6.0 is available for Rohde & Schwarz | White paper IEEE 802.11ax technology introduction 3 purchase by non-members at this link: https://www.techstreet.com/ieee/standards/ ieee-p802-11ax?gateway_code=ieee&vendor_id=7180&product_id=2019792 The IEEE 802.11 task groups provide public status updates of their work. The IEEE 802.11ax status can be found at: http://www.ieee802.org/11/Reports/tgax_update.htm 3 IEEE 802.11ax GOALS AND FEATURES The main goal of IEEE 802.11ax is to improve the user experience and network perfor- mance in dense deployments in the unlicensed bands. Specific targets (as defined in the project authorization request [2]) are: ► At least four times improvement in the average throughput per station (measured at the MAC data service access point) in a dense deployment scenario, while maintaining or improving the power efficiency per station ► Backwards compatibility and coexistence with legacy IEEE 802.11 devices operating in the same band IEEE 802.11ax will use the spectrum efficiency, area throughput and performance improvements to target several usage models including (see [3]): ► Airports/train stations ► E-education ► Public transportation ► Dense apartment buildings ► Picocell street deployments A high-level overview of new IEEE 802.11ax features and their key benefits can be found in Table 1. Table 1: IEEE 802.11ax features and key benefits Feature Key benefits Uplink MU-MIMO Higher throughput upstream Downlink OFDMA