Evaluating the impact of frame aggregation on video-streaming over IEEE 802.11n multihop networks

In this paper, we study the effects of frame aggregation on video streaming performance in a real-world IEEE 802.11n testbed. We quantitatively characterize delay, video quality, and mean aggregate size in two multi-hop scenarios. We observe that streaming applications naturally take advantage of frame aggregation, both in single- and multi-stream environments, and that a Full-HD video can be transmitted with excellent quality and delay, even on a 6-hop chain. Furthermore, we discover that limiting frame aggregation severely impacts both the delay and video quality. We believe these insights on frame aggregation help for developing an effective cross-layer design for video streaming over IEEE 802.11n multi-hop networks.