Coupled IEEE 802.11ac and TCP performance evaluation in various aggregation schemes and Access Categories

We investigate the Throughput of a TCP connection over an IEEE 802.11ac channel using the various aggregation schemes and Access Categories defined in this standard. We present an analytical model to compute the Throughput based on a Markov chain. The model is verified by simulation. This research has several outcomes. First, it assists in defining the optimal TCP Upload and Download working points, i.e. the optimal amount of aggregation, in every Access Category. Second, it is found that the Best Effort and Video Access Categories yield the largest Throughputs. In addition, the great amount of aggregation in Two-Level aggregation cancels the priority that one side of the connection has in accessing the channel in the Video and Voice Access Categories.