Analysis of IEEE 802.11 in Radio over Fiber Home Networks

Radio over fiber (RoF) techniques have been developed to combine the mobility of wireless technologies and the huge bandwidth offered by optical fibers. In this paper, we present the concept of a hybrid radio-fiber system using IEEE 802.11 specifications as a solution for future broadband in-house networks. An analysis on the feasibility of applying RoF techniques to the IEEE 802.11´s medium access control (MAC) protocol is presented. To substantiate our discussion, simulations of the hybrid system have been carried out. The results show that the throughput of a 802.11 cell extended with an optical distribution network does not decrease drastically when the propagation delay increases