A Modular, Flexible and Virtualizable Framework for IEEE 802.11

Abstract

Wireless networks are extensively deployed due to their low cost and configuration easiness. However, they are not adapted to the new services and applications that are increasingly demanded by users. Current implementation of the IEEE 802.11 specification is supported in hardware devices and software developments, but they do not provide the adaptability that would enhance user experience in next generation networks. In this paper, we present a new wireless framework, based on the one currently supported by the Linux stack: mac80211. This new framework, named mac80211++, has been tailored to improve MAC features in terms of: (i) modularity, by defining different 802.11 MAC services; (ii) flexibility, by enabling dynamic configurability of the 802.11 MAC; (iii) virtualization, by managing parallel independent 802.11 MACs accessing the same system resources.