Will OFDMA Improve the Performance of 802.11 Wifi Networks?

WiFi 6 based on the IEEE 802.11ax amendment is intended to improve spectral efficiency and area throughput operations in high density environments. This is achieved (among other methods) by the introduction of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and enhanced multi-user Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) features. In this work, we explore the performance of downlink and uplink OFDMA in 802.11ax via extensive simulation based evaluation (latency, throughput, range) compared to conventional single user (SU) transmissions. Based on our results, we conclude that OFDMA can reduce the median latency from ~5 ms to less than 1 ms in non-saturation conditions. When used in conjunction with efficient multi-user buffer status report and restricted EDCA mechanisms, OFDMA can increase the saturation throughput by more than 10 percent. Moreover, UL OFDMA also improves aggregate throughput at longer ranges due to the narrower sub-channels (equivalently increased transmit power spectral density); four stations achieve an aggregate throughput 35 percent higher than a station transmitting SU frames and located at a range 1.5 times closer to the access point.