A Channel Adaptive ACK Mechanism in High Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks

Abstract

In IEEE 802.15.3 wireless personal area networks, the acknowledgement (ACK) mechanism has significant impact on the overall throughput. In this paper, we propose a channel adaptive ACK (CA-ACK) mechanism where an ACK is selectively transmitted depending on wireless channel conditions to maximize the data throughput. Specifically, an ACK is transmitted only when the frame error rate is greater than a pre-defined threshold; this threshold is derived for a given payload size and data rate using developed analytical models. Simulation results demonstrate that CA-ACK improves the throughput adaptively to varying channel conditions.