Exploiting full-duplex opportunities in WLANs via a reinforcement learning-based medium access control protocol

Abstract In-band full-duplex communication has the potential to double the wireless channel capacity. However, how to efficiently transform the full-duplex gain at the physical layer into network throughput improvement is still a challenge, especially in dynamic communication environments. This pape...

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Main Authors: Song Liu, Peng Wei
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2024-12-01
Series:Scientific Reports
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-83025-y
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author Song Liu
Peng Wei
author_facet Song Liu
Peng Wei
author_sort Song Liu
collection DOAJ
description Abstract In-band full-duplex communication has the potential to double the wireless channel capacity. However, how to efficiently transform the full-duplex gain at the physical layer into network throughput improvement is still a challenge, especially in dynamic communication environments. This paper presents a reinforcement learning-based full-duplex (RLFD) medium access control (MAC) protocol for wireless local-area networks (WLANs) with full-duplex access points. To solve the channel contention problem and fully utilize the full-duplex transmission opportunities, we first design a two-way handshake transmission mechanism and make an investigation on the effects of transmission scheduling in full-duplex transmission. Then the transmission scheduling problem is theoretically formulated as a non-stationary multi-armed bandit problem in which our objective is to maximize the network throughput. Thus, we develop a Window-Constraint Bayesian (WCB) algorithm to generate optimized scheduling policies online. And full-duplex opportunities are fully utilized by transmitting packets according to the optimized scheduling policies. Besides, an analytical model is developed to characterize the performance of RLFD. The performance of RLFD is evaluated by simulation. And the results show that RLFD can improve the network throughput by 80% compared with the IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function with Request-To-Send/Clear-To-Send. Moreover, with the proposed WCB algorithm, the network throughput can remain steady as the communication environment dynamically changes.
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spelling doaj-art-cfd9dbc4a09847f79e524a5c80dba24b2025-08-20T02:43:25ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222024-12-0114111810.1038/s41598-024-83025-yExploiting full-duplex opportunities in WLANs via a reinforcement learning-based medium access control protocolSong Liu0Peng Wei1Naval University of EngineeringNational University of Defense TechnologyAbstract In-band full-duplex communication has the potential to double the wireless channel capacity. However, how to efficiently transform the full-duplex gain at the physical layer into network throughput improvement is still a challenge, especially in dynamic communication environments. This paper presents a reinforcement learning-based full-duplex (RLFD) medium access control (MAC) protocol for wireless local-area networks (WLANs) with full-duplex access points. To solve the channel contention problem and fully utilize the full-duplex transmission opportunities, we first design a two-way handshake transmission mechanism and make an investigation on the effects of transmission scheduling in full-duplex transmission. Then the transmission scheduling problem is theoretically formulated as a non-stationary multi-armed bandit problem in which our objective is to maximize the network throughput. Thus, we develop a Window-Constraint Bayesian (WCB) algorithm to generate optimized scheduling policies online. And full-duplex opportunities are fully utilized by transmitting packets according to the optimized scheduling policies. Besides, an analytical model is developed to characterize the performance of RLFD. The performance of RLFD is evaluated by simulation. And the results show that RLFD can improve the network throughput by 80% compared with the IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function with Request-To-Send/Clear-To-Send. Moreover, with the proposed WCB algorithm, the network throughput can remain steady as the communication environment dynamically changes.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-83025-yIn-band full duplexMedium access control protocolReinforcement learningBayesian optimizationMulti-armed bandit
spellingShingle Song Liu
Peng Wei
Exploiting full-duplex opportunities in WLANs via a reinforcement learning-based medium access control protocol
Scientific Reports
In-band full duplex
Medium access control protocol
Reinforcement learning
Bayesian optimization
Multi-armed bandit
title Exploiting full-duplex opportunities in WLANs via a reinforcement learning-based medium access control protocol
title_full Exploiting full-duplex opportunities in WLANs via a reinforcement learning-based medium access control protocol
title_fullStr Exploiting full-duplex opportunities in WLANs via a reinforcement learning-based medium access control protocol
title_full_unstemmed Exploiting full-duplex opportunities in WLANs via a reinforcement learning-based medium access control protocol
title_short Exploiting full-duplex opportunities in WLANs via a reinforcement learning-based medium access control protocol
title_sort exploiting full duplex opportunities in wlans via a reinforcement learning based medium access control protocol
topic In-band full duplex
Medium access control protocol
Reinforcement learning
Bayesian optimization
Multi-armed bandit
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-83025-y
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AT pengwei exploitingfullduplexopportunitiesinwlansviaareinforcementlearningbasedmediumaccesscontrolprotocol