Laboratory

LAB3
3
Wireless Local Area Network
Medium Access Control for Wirelessly Connected Stations
Objective
This lab addresses the Medium Access Control (MAC) sublayer of the IEEE
802.11 standard for the wireless local area network (WLAN). Various options
of this standard are studied in this lab. The performance of these options is
analyzed under multiple scenarios.
Procedure
Create a New Project
To create a new project for the Ethernet network:
1. Start OPNET IT Guru Academic Edition  Choose New from the File menu.
2. Select Project  Click OK  Name the project <your initials>_WirelessLAN,
and name the scenario DCF  Click OK.
3. In the Startup Wizard: Initial Topology dialog box, make sure that Create Empty
Scenario is selected  Click Next  Choose Office from the Network Scale list
and check Use Metric Units  Click Next twice  Click OK.
Create and Configure the Network
To create our wireless network:
1. The Object Palette dialog box should be now on the top
of your project space. If it is not there, open it by
clicking . Make sure that the wireless_lan is selected
from the pull-down menu on the object palette.
2. Add to the project workspace the nine wlan_ station_adv
(fix) from the palette.
a. To add an object from a palette, click its icon in
the object palette  Move your mouse to the
workspace  Left-click to place the object. Right-
click when finished.
3. Close the Object Palette dialog box  Arrange the
stations in the workspace as shown in the following
figure  Save your project.
Node Destination
Configure the Wireless Nodes Name Address
1. Repeat the following for each of the nine nodes:
node_0 Random
Right-click on the node  Edit Attributes
 Assign to the Wireless LAN MAC Address node_1 5
attribute a value equals to the node number (e.g., node_2 8
address 1 is assigned to node_1)  Assign to node_3 6
the Destination Address attribute the
node_4 7
corresponding value shown in the following table
 Click OK. node_5 1

a. The following figure shows the values node_6 3

assigned to the Destination Address and node_7 4
Wireless LAN MAC Address attributes for
node_8 2
node_1.

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Traffic Generation Parameters
1. Select all nodes in the network simultaneously except node_0 (click on all of them
while holding the Shift key) Right-click on any of the selected nodes Edit
Attributes Check the Apply Changes to Selected Objects check box.
2. Expand the Traffic Generation Parameters and the Packet Generation Arguments
hierarchies  Edit the attributes to match the following figure  Click OK.
Buffer Size specifies the
maximum size of the
higher-layer data buffer in
bits. Once the buffer limit is
reached, the data packets
arriving from the higher
layer will be discarded until
some packets are removed
from the buffer so that the
buffer has some free
space to store these new
packets. space to store
these new packets.

3. Select all nodes in the network simultaneously,

including node_0  Right-click on any of the
selected nodes  Edit Attributes  Check the
Apply Changes to Selected Objects check box.
4. Expand the hierarchy of the Wireless LAN
Parameters attribute  Assign the value 4608000
to the Buffer Size (bits) attribute  Click OK.
5. Right-click on node_0  Edit Attributes
Expand the Wireless LAN Parameters
hierarchy and set the Access Point Functionality
to Enabled  Click OK.
6. Save the project.
Choose the Statistics
To test the performance of the network in our DCF
scenario, we will collect some of the available
statistics as follows:
1. Right-click anywhere in the project workspace
and select Choose Individual Statistics from
the pop-up menu.
2. In the Choose Results dialog box, expand the
Global Statistics and Node Statistics
hierarchies  Choose the five statistics shown.
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 3. Click OK.

Configure the Simulation

Here we will configure the simulation parameters:
1. Click on and the Configure Simulation window should appear.
2. Set the duration to be 10.0 minutes.
3. Click OK and then Save your project.
Duplicate the Scenario
In the network we just created, we did not utilize many of the features
explained in the overview section. By default, the distributed coordination
function (DCF) method is used for the Medium Access Control (MAC)
sublayer. We will create three more scenarios to utilize the features
available from the IEEE 802.11 standard. In the DCF_Frag scenario, we will
allow fragmentation of the MAC data units into smaller frames and test its
effect on the network performance. The DCF_PCF scenario utilizes the
point coordination function (PCF) method for the MAC sublayer along with
the DCF method. Finally, in the DCF_PCF_Frag scenario we will allow
fragmentation of the MAC data and check its effect along with PCF.
THE DCF_FRAG SCENARIO
1. Select Duplicate Scenario from the Scenarios menu and give it the name DCF_Frag
Click OK.
2. Select all the nodes in the DCF_ Frag scenario simultaneously Fragmentation Threshold
 Right-click on any one of them  Edit Attributes  Check specifies the fragmentation
threshold in bytes. Any
the Apply Changes to Selected Objects check box. data packet received from
3. Expand the hierarchy of the Wireless LAN Parameters attribute a higher layer with a size
 Assign the value 256 to the Fragmentation Threshold greater than this threshold
(bytes) attribute  Click OK. will be divided into
fragments, which will be
transmitted separately over
the radio interface.
Regardless of the value of
this attribute, if the size of a
higher-layer packet is
larger than the maximum
MSDU size allowed by the
IEEE 802.11 WLAN
standard, which is 2304
bytes, then such a packet
will not be transmitted by
the MAC, and it will be
immediately discarded
when received..

4. Right-click on node_0  Edit Attributes  Expand the Wireless LAN Parameters

hierar- chy and set the Access Point Functionality to Enabled  Click OK
THE DCF_PCF SCENARIO
1. Switch to the DCF scenario, select Duplicate Scenario from the Scenarios menu
and give it the name DCF_PCF Click OK Save your project.
2. Select node_0, node_1, node_3, node_5, and node_7 in the DCF_PCF scenario
simultaneously (click on these nodes while holding the Shift key) Right-click on any
one of the selected nodes  Edit Attributes.
3. Check Apply Changes to Selected Objects  Expand the hierarchy of the Wireless
LAN Parameters attribute  Expand the hierarchy of the PCF Parameters attribute
 Enable the PCF Functionality attribute  Click OK.
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 4. Right-click on node_0  Edit Attributes  Expand the Wireless LAN Parameters
hierarchy and set the Access Point Functionality to Enabled  Click OK.
THE DCF_PCF_FRAG SCENARIO
1. Switch to the DCF_Frag scenario, select Duplicate Scenario from the Scenarios
menu and give it the name DCF_PCF_Frag  Click OK  Save your project.
2. Select node_0, node_1, node_3, node_5, and node_7 in the DCF_PCF_Frag scenario
simultaneously  Right-click on any one of the selected nodes  Edit Attributes.
3. Check Apply Changes to Selected Objects  Expand the hierarchy of the Wireless
LAN Parameters attribute  Expand the hierarchy of the PCF Parameters
attribute  Enable the PCF Functionality attribute  Click OK.
4. Right-click on node_0  Edit Attributes  Expand the Wireless LAN
Parameters hierarchy and set the Access Point Functionality to Enabled  Click
OK.
Run the Simulation
To run the simulation for the four scenarios simultaneously:

1. Go to the Scenarios menu  Select Manage Scenarios.

2. Click on the row of each scenario and click the Collect Results button. This should
change the values under the Results column to <collect> as shown.

3. Click OK to run the four simulations. Depending on the speed of your processor, this
process may take several seconds to complete.
4. After the simulation of the four scenarios completes, click Close  Save your project.
View the Results
To view and analyze the results (Note: Actual results will vary slightly based
on the actual node positioning in the project):
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 1. Select Compare Results from the Result menu.
2. Change the drop-down menu in the lower-right part of the Compare Results dialog box
from As Is to time_average  Select the Delay (sec) statistic from the Wireless LAN
hierarchy as shown.
time_average is the
average value over time of
the values generated during
the collection window. This
average is performed
assuming a “sample-and-
hold” behavior of the data
set (i.e., each value is
weighted by the amount of
time separating it from the
following update
and the sum of all the
weighted values is divided
by the width of the collection
window).

3. Click Show to show the result in a new panel. The resulting graph should resemble the
following one.

Delay represents the end-

to-end delay of all the
packets received by the
wireless LAN MACs of all
WLAN nodes in the
network and forwarded to
the higher layer.
This delay includes
medium access delay at
the source MAC, recep-
tion of all the fragments
individually, and transfer of
the frames through AP, if
access point function- ality
is enabled.

4. Go to the Compare Results dialog box  Follow the same procedure to show the
graphs of the following statistics from the Wireless LAN hierarchy: Load (bits/sec)
and Throughput (bits/sec). The resulting graphs should resemble the following
ones.
Load represents the total
load (in bits/sec) submit- ted
to wireless LAN layers by all
other higher layers in all
WLAN nodes of the network.
This statistic does not
include the bits of the higher-
layer packets that are
dropped by
WLAN MACs upon arrival
and not considered for
transmission because of, for
example, insufficient space
left in the higher- layer
packet buffer of
the MAC.

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 Throughput represents
the total number of bits (in
bits/sec) forwarded from
wireless LAN lay- ers to
higher layers in all WLAN
nodes of the network.

5. Go to the Compare Results dialog box  Expand the Object Statistics hierarchy
 Expand the Office Network hierarchy  Expand the hierarchy of two nodes.
One node should have PCF enabled in the DCF_PCF scenario (e.g., node_3) and the
other node should have PCF disabled (e.g., node_2)  Show the result of the Delay
(sec) statistic for the chosen nodes. The resulting graphs should resemble the
following ones.

6. Repeat Step 5 above but for the Retransmission Attempts (packets) statistic. The
resulting graphs should resemble the following ones.

7. Close all graphs and the Compare Results dialog box  Save your project.
Questions
1) Based on the definition of the statistic Load, explain why with PCF enabled the
load is lower than if DCF is used without PCF.
2) Analyze the graphs that compare the Delay and Throughput of the four scenarios.
What are the effects of utilizing PCF and fragmentation on these two statistics?
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3) From the last four graphs, explain how the performance of a node without PCF is
affected by having PCF enabled in other nodes in the network.
4) Create two new scenarios as duplicates of the DCF_PCF scenario. Name the first
new scenario DCF_allPCF and the second new scenario DCF_twoPCF. In
DCF_allPCF, enable the PCF attribute in all eight nodes: node_1 through node_8.
(Note: Do not include node_0 in any of your attribute editing.) In DCF_twoPCF,
disable the PCF attribute in node_3 and node_5 (this will leave only node_1 and
node_7 with PCF enabled). Generate the graphs for the Delay, Load, and
Throughput statistics, and explain how the number of PCF nodes might affect the
performance of the wireless network.
5) For all scenarios, select the Media Access Delay statistic from the Global Statistics
→ Wireless LAN hierarchy. Rerun the simulation for all scenarios. Generate the
graph that compares the Media Access Delay statistic of all scenarios. Analyze the
graph, explaining the effect of PCF, fragmentation, and number of PCF nodes on
media access delay.