Besides extremely high throughput, Wi-Fi 7 is also aimed at providing users a more deterministic behavior, characterized by shorter average latency and smaller jitters. A key mechanism to achieve this is multi-link operation, which brings simultaneous multi-band communication to client stations as well. In this paper, traffic steering policies are briefly reviewed and grouped into general classes, each one with its advantages and limitations. A basic mechanism for supporting dynamic steering is then described, which is simple enough to allow implementation in real Wi-Fi chipsets but highly flexible at the same time. Its operation can be driven by the host on a per-packet basis, and this permits to optimize spectrum usage depending on the requirements of applications and the traffic pattern they generate.
@article{arxiv.2411.13470,
title = {Packet Steering Mechanisms for MLO in Wi-Fi 7},
author = {Gianluca Cena and Matteo Rosani and Stefano Scanzio},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.13470},
year = {2024}
}