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IEEE 802.11ah Based M2M Networks Employing Virtual Grouping and Power
Saving Methods

Conference Paper  in  Vehicular Technology Conference, 1988, IEEE 38th · September 2013

DOI: 10.1109/VTCFall.2013.6692225

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 IEEE 802.11ah based M2M Networks employing
Virtual Grouping and Power Saving Methods
Kohei Ogawa ∗ , Yuki Sangenya ∗ , Masahiro Morikura ∗ , Koji Yamamoto ∗ , and Tomoyuki Sugihara †
∗ Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University, Yoshida-honmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
Tel: +81–75–753–5960, Fax: +81–75–753–5349, E-mail: ogawa@imc.cce.i.kyoto-u.ac.jp † Allied Telesis Holdings K.K.
Abstract—As a promising wireless access standard for
machine-to-machine (M2M) networks, the IEEE 802.11 task
group ah has been discussing a new standard which is based
on the wireless local area network (WLAN) standard. This new
standard will support an enormous number of stations (STAs)
such as 6000 STAs. To mitigate degradation of the throughput
and delay performance in WLANs that employ a carrier sense
multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) protocol,
this paper proposes a virtual grouping method which exploits
the random arbitration interframe space number scheme. This
method complies with the CSMA/CA protocol, which employs
distributed medium access control. Moreover, power saving is
another important issue for M2M networks, where most STAs are
operated by primary or secondary batteries. This paper proposes
a new power saving method for the IEEE 802.11ah based M2M
network employing the proposed virtual grouping method. With
the proposed virtual grouping and power saving methods, the
STAs can save their power by as much as 90% and maintain
good throughput and delay performance.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Machine-to-machine (M2M) networks, which are composed
of power meters and various sensors, are currently attracting
considerable attention for the realization of smart grids and
smart communities. M2M networks are characterized by a
large number of stations (STAs). A wireless medium access
standard for M2M networks has been discussed by the IEEE
802.11 task group ah (hereafter we write this abbreviated
IEEE 802.11ah) [1], which is based on the cutting-edge wire-
less local area network (WLAN) standard such as the IEEE
802.11ac standard [2]. In IEEE 802.11ah, up to 6000 STAs are
assumed to belong to an access point (AP). As the number of
active STAs increases, the throughput and delay performances
of the system are significantly degraded when the carrier
sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA)
protocol is exploited. In normal cases, this problem does
not occur because traffic in M2M networks supposed to be
usually light. However, we should consider that temporary
traffic congestion occurs. For example, such instances occur
when the AP transmits a certain trigger frame to many STAs
to collect STA information. Many STAs respond to the trigger
frame and transmit their reply data frames. These events cause
traffic congestion in an M2M network.
To avoid this performance degradation, several STA group-
ing methods have been proposed, which can be classified into
real and virtual grouping. The first method allocates all STAs
into some groups and assigns a communication time period
to each group according to a centralized control scheme of
the AP to realize the real grouping method. It needs overhead
control information to support this scheme. The second method
realizes the grouping with a distributed control scheme based
on the CSMA/CA protocol. As a virtual grouping method, the
distributed coordination function with virtual group (DCF/VG)
scheme is proposed [3] [4]. The DCF/VG scheme achieves
good throughput performance even when traffic congestion
occurs; however, it suffers from a power consumption problem
of STAs. According to the DCF/VG scheme, each STA always
searches for the allocated slot, which is composed of a channel
busy period and an idle period. An STA can transmit its data
frame only at the allocated slot. Therefore, each STA always
needs to sense channel busy states in order to detect assigned
slot boundaries.
To realize an M2M network composed of power-efficient
STAs, this paper proposes the IEEE 802.11ah based M2M net-
works employing virtual grouping and power saving method.
Virtual grouping is realized by the random arbitration inter-
frame space (IFS) number (AIFSN) scheme to improve the
throughput performance under the condition of many active
STAs. An active STA means that it stays at an awake state to
transmit data frames. The random AIFSN scheme is proposed
for the precise quality of service (QoS) control of WLANs
to transmit several types of data frames [5]. We apply this
method to the M2M network to realize virtual grouping and
improve the throughput performance of a system with 6000
STAs. Moreover, we propose a novel power saving method
using the virtual grouping method.
Most STAs in the M2M networks are supposed to be
battery-operated sensors. Therefore, power saving is a key
issue. The legacy IEEE 802.11 standard supports the power
save poll (PS-Poll) technique as a power saving method. In
addition to the PS-Poll technique, the IEEE 802.11n standard
supports the power save multi-poll (PSMP) technique [6].
Various power saving methods for wireless sensor networks
and WLANs have been proposed [7], [8]. However, these
schemes are mostly intended for multi-hop and ad-hoc mode
systems. For single-hop networks with a small number of
STAs, the PS-Poll or PSMP techniques are usually used to
realize power saving.
For power saving of the STAs, the IEEE 802.11ah adopts
the PS-Poll technique, which enables non-active STAs to sleep
except during the period when they are receiving selected
beacon frames. PS-Poll is effective under the usual light traffic
conditions; however, it is ineffective under heavy traffic. An

active STA that has data frames in its transmission queue
cannot enter into the sleep state unless the queue becomes
empty. Under heavy traffic conditions, STAs are likely to
wait for a long period before the data frames are transmitted.
Thus, the power consumption of STAs increases. To solve this
problem, the PSMP technique, adopted by the IEEE 802.11n
standard, can be used. It is suitable for a small number of
STAs, but not for M2M networks that have a large number
of STAs, because the PSMP frame length becomes very long
owing to the large number of STAs. For example, the PSMP
frame length of 6000 STAs is estimated to be 48 kB, which
takes approximately 1.3 s to send and receive at a transmission
rate of 300 kbit/s. The AP has to transmit and the STAs usually
have to receive these extraordinarily long PSMP frames in case
temporal traffic congestion occurs, which causes an increase
in the STAs’ power consumption.
Thus, we propose a new power saving method employing
virtual grouping in addition to the legacy PS-Poll technique.
The proposed method enables the STAs to save on their power
consumption in a distributed control manner.
This paper is organized as follows. Section II describes
the virtual grouping method with the random AIFSN scheme.
Section III provides the description of the proposed power
saving method employing virtual grouping. Section IV eval-
uates the performance of the M2M network and discusses
the effectiveness of the proposed method. Finally, Section V
presents the conclusion of this paper.
II. V IRTUAL GROUPING WITH RANDOM AIFSN SCHEME
A. Random AIFSN scheme
According to the random AIFSN scheme, an STA
randomly selects its AIFSN value from the interval
[AIFSNmin , AIFSNmax ], prior to every data frame transmission.
AIFSN is an integral number, which decides the length of the
AIFS as
AIFS time = SIFS time + AIFSN × slot time, (1)
where slot time = 52 µs [1]. AIFS is a type of IFS, which
is used in enhanced distributed channel access of the IEEE
802.11e standard [9] to realize QoS control. The AIFS de-
termined by (1) is expressed as AIFS(AIFSN). For example,
AIFS(2) means that the AIFSN value is two. It is equal to the
period of the distributed IFS.
To explain the random AIFSN scheme the transmission
procedure is shown in Fig. 1. In this figure, a cycle is
composed of an idle channel period and the following busy
channel period. According to the scheme, each STA waits
for the AIFS time and backoff time before its transmission
as well as the IEEE 802.11e channel access procedure. The
transmission period is composed of a data frame period, a short
IFS (SIFS) period, and an ACK frame period. Two cases could
occur during the transmission period: successful data frame
transmission and data frame collision.
Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Cycle 3
STA 1 AIFS(3) AIFS(3) Data frame AIFS(3)
Collision
STA 2 AIFS(4) AIFS(4) Data frame AIFS(2) Transmission
STA 3 AIFS(2) Transmission AIFS(5) AIFS(5)
Transmission
Data frame SIFS ACK frame
Fig. 1. Medium access control with the random AIFSN scheme. The AIFSN
value is randomly determined after the transmission.
B. Virtual grouping
In [5], the random AIFSN scheme was applied to a system
with a small number of STAs to realize the precise QoS control
for several types of data transmissions. We applied this scheme
to M2M networks with a large number of STAs. As a result,
we found that virtual grouping is feasible. The throughput per-
formance is considerably improved with the virtual grouping
method, which limits the number of contending STAs in the
case of simultaneous data frame transmissions. We define two
types of STAs. One is a contending STA that decreases its
backoff counter value, and the other is a non-contending STA
that does not decrease its backoff counter value during a cycle.
In Fig. 1, STA 1 decreases its backoff counter and detects the
channel busy state at cycle 1. STA 2 detects the channel busy
state before decreasing its backoff counter. STA 3 decreases
its backoff counter to zero and then transmits its data frame. In
this case, STA 1 and STA 3 can possibly transmit a data frame
during the cycle, but STA 2 cannot transmit. Thus, during the
cycle, STA 1 and STA3 are regarded as contending STAs,
and STA 2 is regarded as a non-contending STA. In this case,
STAs are divided into two groups, namely, contending and
non-contending STAs with the random AIFSN scheme. With
this scheme, virtual grouping of the STAs is realized. Fig. 2
shows the virtual grouping mechanism. After the data frame
transmission, an STA obtains a new AIFSN value. If obtained
AIFSN value is small, it is likely to be a contending STA. By
contrast if obtained AIFSN value is large, it is likely to be a
non-contending STA.
III. P ROPOSED POWER SAVING METHOD EMPLOYING
VIRTUAL GROUPING
The conventional power saving methods work well under
light traffic conditions with a small number of STAs. However,
under traffic congestion conditions with a large number of
STAs, these methods degrade the throughput and power con-
sumption performance. The objective of the proposed method
is to reduce the power consumption of the system under traffic
congestion conditions. The key idea of the proposed method
 Start
Non-contending STAs

Transmission procedure
Contending STAs with virtual grouping

Frequently changing
Backoff counter decreased?
No
Yes

r=0 r ++

Fig. 2. Contending and non-contending STAs by virtual grouping when

random AIFSN scheme is employed.
Are there any data r > rth?
No
Yes frames in the queue?
Yes
No
TABLE I
IEEE 802.11 TG AH PARAMETERS . r=0
End

Parameters Value
Channel band width 1 MHz r : counter value which presents the number
Sleep during Tsleep
Data rate 300 kbit/s of successive non-contending states
MAC payload 200 B
OFDM symbol 40 µs
Slot time 52 µs
SIFS 160 µs Fig. 3. Flowchart of the proposed power saving method for active STAs.
CWmin 15
CWmax 1023
TABLE II
P OWER CONSUMPTION PARAMETERS .

is to make the non-contending STAs sleep. The flowchart of
this scheme is shown in Fig. 3 for active STAs that have data
frames in their transmission queues. First of all, they undergo
a virtual grouping process with the random AIFSN scheme to
transmit the data frame as explained in Section II. During the
virtual grouping process, each active STA experiences either
of the states — the contending or the non-contending state
— at every cycle. Each STA counts the number of successive
non-contending states and enters into the sleep state if the
number exceeds a threshold rth . After sleeping for a certain
sleep period Tsleep , the STA returns to the active state. When
an active STA decreases its backoff counter value, it stays
in the active state and tries to transmit its data frame. Each
STA repeats this procedure until its queue becomes empty.
The proposed method realizes the power saving method in a
distributed control manner. With a small value of rth , it is
easy for the STAs to sleep, although they are likely to lose
opportunities to transmit their data frames. The Tsleep value is
restricted by the IEEE 802.11 standard and the characteristics
of wireless sensor devices. With regard to the former, the STAs
have to receive the delivery traffic indication maps (DTIMs).
Hence, Tsleep must be smaller than the DTIM interval which is
assumed to be a few seconds. Regarding the latter, Tsleep must
be much larger than the period required for a sensor device to
wake up, which is within a few milliseconds.
State Value
Transmitting 340 mW
Receiving 260 mW
Data processing 56 mW
Channel sensing 204 mW
Sleep 0.19 mW
IV. P ERFORMANCE EVALUATION
The computer simulation results are presented in this sec-
tion. To evaluate the throughput, delay, and power consump-
tion performance, we developed a simulation platform on a
Monte Carlo simulation using C++ language, which emulates
the IEEE 802.11 protocol as closely as possible for real-world
operation of each transmitting STA. The simulation parameters
are shown in Tables I and II.
A. Evaluation of virtual grouping
The evaluation of virtual grouping with the random AIFSN
scheme is presented. A single-hop network, composed of an
AP and many STAs, is considered according to the IEEE
802.11ah system model. For simplicity, a saturated traffic
condition is assumed in which the transmission queues of all
STAs are always occupied by data frames.
Fig. 4 shows the average number of contending STAs
with the random AIFSN scheme. The average number of
contending STAs is kept very small with many active STAs.
 18
50
Average number of contending STAs

16

14

Consumed energy (kJ)

40
12

10 30 Proposed power saving method

Conventional PS-Poll method
8
20
6

4 10
2

0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Number of STAs rth

Fig. 4. Average number of contending STAs with the random AIFSN scheme Fig. 6. Total consumed energy of the STAs versus rth . rth is the sleep
(AIFSNmax = 20). threshold.

200 68.5
Proposal ( AIFSNmax = 20)
180 Conventional DCF 68
160 67.5
Total throughput (kbit/s)

140
Maximum delay (s)
67
120
66.5
Proposed power saving method
100 Conventional PS-Poll method
66
80
65.5
60
65
40
20 64.5

0 64
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Number of STAs rth

Fig. 5. Throughput performance under saturated traffic condition. Fig. 7. Maximum delay time for 6000 STAs to transmit all data frames
versus rth . rth is the sleep threshold.

In this case, most of the STAs are usually at a non-contending

state. When the number of STAs is equal to 6000, the average
number of contending STAs is only 16. It enables the M2M
networks to improve the throughput performance drastically,
which is operated with the CSMA/CA protocol under heavy
traffic conditions.
Fig. 5 shows the throughput performance under a saturated
traffic condition versus the number of STAs. The value of
AIFSNmax is set 20 in order to maximize the throughput
performance with 6000 STAs. The throughput performance
of the conventional DCF system decreases with an increase in
the number of STAs. On the other hand, the virtual grouping
method with the random AIFSN scheme drastically improves
the throughput performance. The throughput performance of
the 6000 STAs is remains as much as that of the 30 STAs in
the conventional scheme.
B. Evaluation of the proposed power saving method
1) System description: A single-hop network with an AP
and 6000 STAs is considered according to the IEEE 802.11ah
system model. Each STA is assumed to have a data frame in its
transmission queue at the start of the simulation to evaluate the
temporary uplink traffic congestion state. In this case, as the
simulation time progresses, the traffic congestion is mitigated
owing to an increase in the number of non-active STAs that
have successfully transmitted their data frames. For the sake of
simplicity, the AP transmits no data frames or beacon frames
during this period.
The system performance is evaluated using the two criteria.
The first is the maximum delay, which is the required time
for all STAs to transmit the data frames. The second one is
the consumed energy, which is the amount of energy that all
STAs consumes within this period.
2) Simulation results: We shows the improved performance
of the system with the proposed method and derive an opti-
mum value for rth . In this section, Tsleep is fixed at 100 ms.
Fig. 6 shows the consumed energy of the 6000 STAs versus
rth . The conventional method adopts the random AIFSN
scheme with the conventional PS-Poll technique for power
 50
Proposed power saving method
45 Conventional PS-Poll
40
Consumed energy (kJ)
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0 10
1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Number of active STAs
Fig. 8. Total consumed energy of the STAs versus number of active STAs.
saving. This figure shows that the proposed method reduces the
consumed energy by 98% as compared with the conventional
method at rth = 1. The consumed energy uniformly increases
with value of rth as explained in Section III. Considering only
the consumed energy of STAs, rth = 1 is the best value.
Moreover, we must consider the delay performance when
choosing the rth value. Fig. 7 shows the maximum delay time
for the 6000 STAs to transmit versus rth . The maximum delay
decreases with an increase in the rth value and converges to
the conventional value, which means that the proposed method
can be applied to both heavy and light traffic congestion
conditions. The heavy traffic condition corresponds to the start
of the simulation process, and the light traffic condition corre-
sponds to the state towards the end of the simulation process.
Assuming that the permissible increase in the maximum delay
is less than 5%, rth should be greater than 1. Considering the
foregoing argument, rth = 2 is the optimal value. Using this
value in Fig. 6 the consumed energy is reduced to 4.6 kJ, which
is less than 10% of the conventional method.
Finally, we evaluate the consumed energy of the proposed
method at different conditions where some STAs are active and
the others are not. Fig. 8 shows the consumed energy versus
the number of active STAs. In this case, rth = 2 is selected
according to the above-mentioned discussion. The proposed
method reduces the consumed energy of the STAs in all cases.
On the other hand, the maximum delay time for all active STAs
to finish their transmissions is increased by less than 5%, as
shown in Fig. 9. These results show that the proposed power
saving method can be applied to various conditions without
parameter adaptation.
V. C ONCLUSION
To realize a good throughput and power-efficient M2M
network employing the CSMA/CA protocol, this paper has
proposed the IEEE 802.11ah based M2M networks employing
virtual grouping and power saving methods. To solve the
throughput performance degradation caused by contention
of many STAs, this paper has shown that virtual grouping
View publication stats
70
Proposed power saving method
Conventional PS-Poll
60
Maximum delay (s)
50
40
30
20
1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Number of active STAs
Fig. 9. Maximum delay time for all STAs to transmit the data frames versus
number of active STAs.
with the random AIFSN scheme achieved a good throughput
performance. To solve a power consumption problem when the
CSMA/CA protocol is used, this paper proposed the power
saving method combined with virtual grouping. It enabled
power saving in a distributed control manner. The simulation
results show that the proposed method reduced the energy
consumption of the STAs by 90% within a 5% increase in the
delay, compared with the system using the virtual grouping
method and the conventional PS-Poll technique.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported in part by Grant-in-Aid for Sci-
entific Research (B) (no. 21360149).
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