Analytical Model of Multi-Link Operation in Saturated Heterogeneous Wi-Fi 7 Networks

The upcoming IEEE 802.11be standard, known as Wi-Fi 7, introduces the multi-link operation, which allows a Wi-Fi device to transmit and receive packets via several links simultaneously. However, in some cases, e.g., when the spectral distance between two channels used by the links is small, cross-link interference caused by the transmission on one link can impair the transmission on another link. 802.11be defines operation rules for this case called the non-simultaneous transmit and receive (NSTR) mode. Particularly, the specification requires simultaneous transmissions on different links to be aligned. Otherwise, the transmission shall be performed on only one link. This letter develops an analytical approach to model NSTR operation and computes the throughput in a saturated network when NSTR multi-link devices coexist with legacy devices.