Ο όρος ‘Δίκτυα Επόμενης Γενιάς’ αναφέρεται σε μελλοντικά δίκτυα πρωτοποριακής λογικής και δομής, προσανατολισμένα στην υποστήριξη σύγχρονων απαιτητικών εφαρμογών και στη βελτίωση της λειτουργικότητας της τερματικής συσκευής, όπως την αντιλαμβάνεται ο χρήστης. Πολύ σημαντικά στοιχεία της νέας τηλεπικοινωνιακής πραγματικότητας που επιφέρουν τα δίκτυα αυτά, και με τα οποία σχετίζεται άμεσα η παρούσα εργασία, είναι η διάθεση προώθησης της γενικευμένης κινητικότητας των ασύρματων χρηστών και η ενθάρρυνση της σύγκλισης επιμέρους τεχνολογιών διαφορετικών δικτύων και της δημιουργίας υβριδικών ετερογενών δικτύων, με στόχο την επίτευξη καλύτερης αξιοποίησης του φάσματος και βελτίωσης των ρυθμών μετάδοσης δεδομένων. Σκοπός της παρούσας διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η παρουσίαση της δομής και των λειτουργιών των Δικτύων Επόμενης Γενιάς, καθώς και ορισμένων υπαρχόντων τύπων ασύρματων δικτύων, η συνεργασία των οποίων θα μπορούσε να προσφέρει τα επιθυμητά πλεονεκτήματα. Δύο τέτοια είδη δικτύων είναι το δίκτυο κινητής τηλεφωνίας UMTS και τα τοπικά δίκτυα τεχνολογίας WLAN, τα οποία εξετάζονται ενδελεχώς ως προς τα χαρακτηριστικά τους και, κυρίως, ως προς τους μηχανισμούς διευθέτησης της περιαγωγής των χρηστών. Περιλαμβάνεται επίσης μία περιγραφή της λειτουργίας του Mobile IP, πρωτοκόλλου που θεωρείται ιδιαίτερα χρήσιμο για τη διαχείριση της κινητικότητας χρηστών ανάμεσα σε περιοχές εξυπηρέτησης διαφορετικών δικτύων. Η εργασία καταλήγει στη μοντελοποίηση των παραπάνω συστημάτων σε περιβάλλον εξομοίωσης, επιδιώκοντας την αξιολόγηση της αποτελεσματικότητας του ενδεχόμενου συνδυασμού των συστημάτων UMTS και WLAN και της χρησιμότητας του Mobile IP. Το λογισμικό που χρησιμοποιείται γι’ αυτόν το σκοπό είναι το OPNET Modeler ®, ένα πρόγραμμα που αναδεικνύεται τα τελευταία χρόνια σε εργαλείο όλο και περισσότερο πολύτιμο, τόσο σε ερευνητικό όσο και σε επιχειρησιακό επίπεδο. / The term ‘Next Generation Networks’ refers to future networks of revolutionary concept and structure, oriented to the support of demanding applications and the upgrade of the terminal device’s functionality, as perceived by the user. Some very important aspects of the new telecommunications reality that is brought on by these networks, and to which this project is directly related, is the intention of promoting generalized mobility for the wireless users and the encouragement of the convergence of distinct network technologies and of the foundation of new hybrid heterogeneous networks, in order to achieve better spectrum utilization and improvement of data transmission rates. The purpose of the current diploma thesis project is to present the structure and the functions of the Next Generation Networks, as well as of some existing types of wireless networks, the cooperation of which could provide the desirable advantages. Two such network types are the UMTS mobile telephony network and the local networks of WLAN technology, that are examined thoroughly towards their characteristics and, foremost, towards their roaming arrangement mechanisms. Also included is a description of the operation of Mobile IP, a protocol that is considered particularly convenient for the management of users’ mobility between service areas of different networks. The project concludes to the modeling of the above mentioned systems in a simulation environment, aiming to evaluate the efficiency of the prospective combination of the UMTS and WLAN systems and the utility of Mobile IP. The software used for this purpose is OPNET Modeler ®, a program that has emerged during the last years as an increasingly valuable research and business tool.

Dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) technologies are applicable to a wide variety of mobile wireless communication systems. The principal energy loss mechanism for this type of antenna is the dielectric loss, and then using modern ceramic materials, this may be very low. These antennas are typically of small size, with a high radiation efficiency, often above 95%; they deliver wide bandwidths, and possess a high power handling capability. The principal objectives of this thesis are to investigate and design DRA for low profile personal and nomadic communications applications for a wide variety of spectrum requirements: including DCS, PCS, UMTS, WLAN, UWB applications. X-band and part of Ku band applications are also considered. General and specific techniques for bandwidth expansion, diversity performance and balanced operation have been investigated through detailed simulation models, and physical prototyping. The first major design to be realized is a new broadband DRA operating from 1.15GHz to 6GHz, which has the potential to cover most of the existing mobile service bands. This antenna design employs a printed crescent shaped monopole, and a defected cylindrical DRA. The broad impedance bandwidth of this antenna is achieved by loading the crescent shaped radiator of the monopole with a ceramic material with a permittivity of 81. The antenna volume is 57.0  37.5  5.8 mm3, which in conjunction with the general performance parameters makes this antenna a potential candidate for mobile handset applications. The next class of antenna to be discussed is a novel offset slot-fed broadband DRA assembly. The optimised structure consists of two asymmetrically located cylindrical DRA, with a rectangular slot feed mechanism. Initially, designed for the frequency range from 9GHz to 12GHz, it was found that further spectral improvements were possible, leading to coverage from 8.5GHz to 17GHz. Finally, a new low cost dual-segmented S-slot coupled dielectric resonator antenna design is proposed for wideband applications in the X-band region, covering 7.66GHz to 11.2GHz bandwidth. The effective antenna volume is 30.0 x 25.0 x 0.8 mm3. The DR segments may be located on the same side, or on opposite sides, of the substrate. The end of these configurations results in an improved diversity performance.

Metamaterials are humanly engineered artificial electromagnetic materials which produce electromagnetic properties that are unusual, yet can be observed readily in nature. These unconventional properties are not a result of the material composition but rather of the structure formed. The objective of this thesis is to investigate and design smaller and wideband metamaterial-inspired antennas for personal communication applications, especially for WiMAX, lower band and higher band WLAN applications. These antennas have been simulated using HFSS Structure Simulator and CST Microwave Studio software. The first design to be analysed is a low-profile metamaterial-inspired CPW-Fed monopole antenna for WLAN applications. The antenna is based on a simple strip loaded with a rectangular patch incorporating a zigzag E-shape metamaterial-inspired unit cell to enable miniaturization effect. Secondly, a physically compact, CSRR loaded monopole antenna with DGS has been proposed for WiMAX/WLAN operations. The introduction of CSRR induces frequency at lower WLAN 2.45 GHz band while the DGS has provided bandwidth enhancement in WiMAX and upper WLAN frequency bands, keeping the radiation pattern stable. The next class of antenna is a compact cloud-shaped monopole antenna consisting of a staircase-shaped DGS has been proposed for UWB operation ranges from 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz. The novel shaped antenna along with carefully designed DGS has resulted in a positive gain throughout the operational bandwidth. Finally, a quad-band, CPW-Fed metamaterial-inspired antenna with CRLH-TL and EBG is designed for multi-band: Satellite, LTE, WiMAX and WLAN.

Este trabalho apresenta uma análise completa da qualidade de voz esperada em serviços de VoIP quando prestados sobre a plataforma WLAN IEEE 802.11g. Diferentemente da maior parte da literatura, este estudo complementa as informações de atraso, variação do atraso e taxa de perda dos pacotes, com um modelo analítico de avaliação de qualidade de voz proposto pela ITU-T, o Modelo E. Desta forma, todos os fatores modelados como perceptíveis pelos usuários do serviço telefônico são considerados simultaneamente, gerando, por fim, resultados correspondentes à escala de avaliação subjetiva da qualidade de voz MOS, que qualifica a opinião média em: “muito satisfeitos”, “satisfeitos”, “alguns insatisfeitos”, “muitos insatisfeitos”, “quase todos insatisfeitos” e “não recomendado”. O código do simulador NS-2 foi expandido para prover todas as funcionalidades requeridas neste trabalho. Com ele, diferentes cenários de aplicação foram simulados utilizando três dos codificadores de voz mais utilizados atualmente, o G.723.1, o G.729a e o G.711 (com e sem PLC). A funcionalidade centralizada da camada MAC IEEE 802.11, o PCF, também foi estudada, tendo os parâmetros referentes ao período entre repetições do CFP e à máxima duração do mesmo analisados e ajustados de modo a prover o melhor desempenho. Experimentos similares foram realizados para a função DCF, permitindo então uma comparação direta entre os dois modos de operação do nível MAC. Além disso, ensaios considerando outros tráfegos menos prioritários (estações de dados) foram realizados com o intuito de caracterizar a capacidade dos sistemas em diferenciar ambos os tráfegos. / This work is intended to provide a complete evaluation of the voice quality obtained in IEEE 802.11g WLAN environments. In contrast to the major literature, this dissertation complements the traditional network metrics, as delay, jitter and loss rate, with an analytical model for voice quality evaluation created by ITU-T, named E Model. With this model, all factors able of affecting the user’s perception of quality in a telephony service are simultaneously considered to reflect the subjective voice quality scale MOS, which rates the mean opinion as follow: “very satisfied”, “satisfied”, “some user satisfied”, “many users dissatisfied”, “nearly all user dissatisfied” and, “not recommended”. An extension to the NS-2 simulator source code has been developed to provide all the features required by this study. With this ‘customized simulator’, several scenarios have been analyzed considering three of the most important vocoders in the market today, G.723.1, G.729a, and G.711 (with and without PLC). Moreover, the centralized scheme for the IEEE 802.11 MAC, called PCF, has been studied to show the effect of the CFP repetition interval and the CFP maximum duration on its upper bound limit of simultaneous voice calls. Similar experiments have been carried out for the DCF MAC functionality, allowing these medium access modes to have their performance directly compared against each other. Finally, scenarios with low priority traffic (data traffic) have been created to help describing the ability of both MAC functions to deal with traffic differentiation.

Este trabalho apresenta uma análise completa da qualidade de voz esperada em serviços de VoIP quando prestados sobre a plataforma WLAN IEEE 802.11g. Diferentemente da maior parte da literatura, este estudo complementa as informações de atraso, variação do atraso e taxa de perda dos pacotes, com um modelo analítico de avaliação de qualidade de voz proposto pela ITU-T, o Modelo E. Desta forma, todos os fatores modelados como perceptíveis pelos usuários do serviço telefônico são considerados simultaneamente, gerando, por fim, resultados correspondentes à escala de avaliação subjetiva da qualidade de voz MOS, que qualifica a opinião média em: “muito satisfeitos”, “satisfeitos”, “alguns insatisfeitos”, “muitos insatisfeitos”, “quase todos insatisfeitos” e “não recomendado”. O código do simulador NS-2 foi expandido para prover todas as funcionalidades requeridas neste trabalho. Com ele, diferentes cenários de aplicação foram simulados utilizando três dos codificadores de voz mais utilizados atualmente, o G.723.1, o G.729a e o G.711 (com e sem PLC). A funcionalidade centralizada da camada MAC IEEE 802.11, o PCF, também foi estudada, tendo os parâmetros referentes ao período entre repetições do CFP e à máxima duração do mesmo analisados e ajustados de modo a prover o melhor desempenho. Experimentos similares foram realizados para a função DCF, permitindo então uma comparação direta entre os dois modos de operação do nível MAC. Além disso, ensaios considerando outros tráfegos menos prioritários (estações de dados) foram realizados com o intuito de caracterizar a capacidade dos sistemas em diferenciar ambos os tráfegos. / This work is intended to provide a complete evaluation of the voice quality obtained in IEEE 802.11g WLAN environments. In contrast to the major literature, this dissertation complements the traditional network metrics, as delay, jitter and loss rate, with an analytical model for voice quality evaluation created by ITU-T, named E Model. With this model, all factors able of affecting the user’s perception of quality in a telephony service are simultaneously considered to reflect the subjective voice quality scale MOS, which rates the mean opinion as follow: “very satisfied”, “satisfied”, “some user satisfied”, “many users dissatisfied”, “nearly all user dissatisfied” and, “not recommended”. An extension to the NS-2 simulator source code has been developed to provide all the features required by this study. With this ‘customized simulator’, several scenarios have been analyzed considering three of the most important vocoders in the market today, G.723.1, G.729a, and G.711 (with and without PLC). Moreover, the centralized scheme for the IEEE 802.11 MAC, called PCF, has been studied to show the effect of the CFP repetition interval and the CFP maximum duration on its upper bound limit of simultaneous voice calls. Similar experiments have been carried out for the DCF MAC functionality, allowing these medium access modes to have their performance directly compared against each other. Finally, scenarios with low priority traffic (data traffic) have been created to help describing the ability of both MAC functions to deal with traffic differentiation.

Rapporten är en jämförande studie av täckningsgrad och bandbredd i trådlösa nätverk av typ hot-spot med IEEE 802.11A/G respektive IEEE 802.11N Draft 2.0. Studien är gjord i tre olika scenarion på Kvarnholmen i Kalmar under april och maj månad 2008.

Este trabalho apresenta uma análise completa da qualidade de voz esperada em serviços de VoIP quando prestados sobre a plataforma WLAN IEEE 802.11g. Diferentemente da maior parte da literatura, este estudo complementa as informações de atraso, variação do atraso e taxa de perda dos pacotes, com um modelo analítico de avaliação de qualidade de voz proposto pela ITU-T, o Modelo E. Desta forma, todos os fatores modelados como perceptíveis pelos usuários do serviço telefônico são considerados simultaneamente, gerando, por fim, resultados correspondentes à escala de avaliação subjetiva da qualidade de voz MOS, que qualifica a opinião média em: “muito satisfeitos”, “satisfeitos”, “alguns insatisfeitos”, “muitos insatisfeitos”, “quase todos insatisfeitos” e “não recomendado”. O código do simulador NS-2 foi expandido para prover todas as funcionalidades requeridas neste trabalho. Com ele, diferentes cenários de aplicação foram simulados utilizando três dos codificadores de voz mais utilizados atualmente, o G.723.1, o G.729a e o G.711 (com e sem PLC). A funcionalidade centralizada da camada MAC IEEE 802.11, o PCF, também foi estudada, tendo os parâmetros referentes ao período entre repetições do CFP e à máxima duração do mesmo analisados e ajustados de modo a prover o melhor desempenho. Experimentos similares foram realizados para a função DCF, permitindo então uma comparação direta entre os dois modos de operação do nível MAC. Além disso, ensaios considerando outros tráfegos menos prioritários (estações de dados) foram realizados com o intuito de caracterizar a capacidade dos sistemas em diferenciar ambos os tráfegos. / This work is intended to provide a complete evaluation of the voice quality obtained in IEEE 802.11g WLAN environments. In contrast to the major literature, this dissertation complements the traditional network metrics, as delay, jitter and loss rate, with an analytical model for voice quality evaluation created by ITU-T, named E Model. With this model, all factors able of affecting the user’s perception of quality in a telephony service are simultaneously considered to reflect the subjective voice quality scale MOS, which rates the mean opinion as follow: “very satisfied”, “satisfied”, “some user satisfied”, “many users dissatisfied”, “nearly all user dissatisfied” and, “not recommended”. An extension to the NS-2 simulator source code has been developed to provide all the features required by this study. With this ‘customized simulator’, several scenarios have been analyzed considering three of the most important vocoders in the market today, G.723.1, G.729a, and G.711 (with and without PLC). Moreover, the centralized scheme for the IEEE 802.11 MAC, called PCF, has been studied to show the effect of the CFP repetition interval and the CFP maximum duration on its upper bound limit of simultaneous voice calls. Similar experiments have been carried out for the DCF MAC functionality, allowing these medium access modes to have their performance directly compared against each other. Finally, scenarios with low priority traffic (data traffic) have been created to help describing the ability of both MAC functions to deal with traffic differentiation.

I detta arbete framlägger vi ett designförslag på hur ett diskussionsverktyg som stödjer ljud- och bildkommunikation kan se ut. Ett förslag som förbättrar och förenklar den distanskommunikation som idag sker med hjälp av mobiltelefoner, videokonferenssystem samt webbkameror anslutna till persondatorer. Den design vi föreslår möjliggör för mobila användare att visuellt föra flerpartssamtal med hjälp av PDA:er. Vårt designförslag har fått arbetsnamnet CU2 (see you too) och är tänkt att fungera i tredje och/eller fjärde generationens mobila nät. Vi har valt att genomföra vårt magisterarbete på företaget A Brand New World i Kista, Stockholm. Företaget utvecklar och säljer system inom mobilt Internet. / Eskil Andersson, A Brand New World, Kista, 08-4779875 Sirvan Akrawi, A Brand New World, Kista, 08-4779853

The demand for ubiquitous networks has pushed the designs of networks all the way. The requirement for access point to be integrated into IEEE 802.3 standard and other networks has always been a sore point in the limitation of wireless coverage of IEEE 802.11 standard networks. Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) is expected to be the future of the next generation wireless network. It is experiencing a fast growing development due to its attractive features which includes high reliable connectivity, easy deployment, self healing, self configuring, flexible network expansion etc. Hence the mobility of the WMN nodes has been of paramount importance, which would make it independent of wired infrastructure and flexible interoperability with various networks and devices. The requirements like mobility, transparency etc. have led to the amendment of the WMN standard by the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineering (IEEE) 802.11 Working Group (WG), Task Group (TG) “S. The IEEE 802.11s standard tackles these issues by its operation on layer 2 of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model and creates a transparent IEEE 802 broadcast domain that supports any higher layer protocol. In our work we give the evaluation of the upcoming IEEE 802.11s standard based on its features some of which include routing at layer 2 and medium access control to enable its design and implementation in the existing mesh frame work of Communication Research Labs (CRL) using the proposed IEEE 802.11s routing protocols with focus on RA-OLSR and HWMP. We concentrate on how to integrate these features into the existing CRL’s C-CORE which runs other layer 3 routing protocols and complex functions as Application Programming Interface (API) modules. The implementation of the IEEE 802.11s standard creates major challenges as we have to create a roadmap on integrating the new wireless kernel interfaces like the nl80211, cfg80211 and the Wireless Extension (Wext) into the CRL’s C-CORE framework for communication between user space and kernel space, especially taking into consideration of the existing HAL and madwifi wireless drivers of the CRL’s framework. To support the evaluation of the features like the layer 2 routing and the modified MAC performance, we compare results of the CRL’s real time mesh network test with our simulation result of the IEEE 802.11s standard using the Qualnet 4.5 simulator with focus on the basic network parameters like delay, jitter and throughput. The comparison shows that the CRL’s network has higher throughput running its existing layer 3 protocols. The analysis also proves that the 802.11s is flexible, scalable and efficient in delivering multi hop capabilities to clients that cannot afford the deployment time or the cost for wired networks that use access points. With the complete integration, of the 802.11s standard specifications the CRL’s C-CORE framework can be much more capable of supporting more diverse network scenario deployments. / +46-736318897

Malgré leur réussite remarquable, les premières versions des normes de réseaux locaux sans fil IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802. 11 a/b/g WLAN, sont caractérisées par une efficacité spectrale faible qui est devenue insuffisante pour satisfaire la croissance explosive de la demande de capacité et de couverture. Grâce aux progrès considérables dans le domaine des communications sans fil et l'utilisation de la bande de fréquence autour de 5 gigahertz le standard IEEE 802.11n et plus récemment 1'IEEE 802.11ac ont amélioré les débits offerts par la couche physique. Cela été possible grâce principalement à l'introduction des techniques multi-antennaires (MIMO, pour Multiple-Input) et des techniques avancées de modulation et de codage. Aujourd'hui, deux décennies après sa première apparition, le Wi-Fi est présenté comme une technologie WLAN permettant des débits supérieurs à 1 gigabit par seconde. Cependant, dans la plupart des scénarios de déploiement du monde réel, il n'est pas possible d'atteindre la pleine capacité offerte par la couche physique. Avec la croissance rapide de la densité des déploiements des WLANs et l'énorme popularité des équipements Wi-Fi, la réutilisation spatiale doit être optimisée. D'autre part, des nouveaux cas d’utilisation sont prévus pour décharger les réseaux cellulaires et pour couvrir des grandes surfaces (stades, gares, etc.). Ces environnements de haute densité représentent un vrai défi pour les générations actuelles de Wi-Fi qui doivent offrir une meilleure qualité à moindre coût. C'est dans ce contexte que s’inscrit l'objectif de cette thèse qui porte sur l'amélioration de l'efficacité des protocoles de la couche MAC des réseaux WLAN de haute densité. Notamment, un des buts de cette thèse est de contribuer à la préparation de la prochaine génération du standard Wi-Fi : IEEE 802.11ax High Efficiency WLAN (HEW). Plutôt que de continuer à cibler l'augmentation des débits maximums théoriques, nous nous concentrons dans le contexte de HEW sur l'amélioration du débit réel des utilisateurs. Pour cela, on prend en compte tous les autres équipements associés à des WLANs voisins, qui essayent d'accéder au même canal de transmission d’une manière simultanée. Pour améliorer la performance du Wi-Fi dans ces environnements denses, nous proposons une adaptation dynamique du mécanisme de détection de signal. Comparé au contrôle de la puissance de transmission, le mécanisme proposé est plus incitatif parce que l'utilisateur concerné bénéficie directement de son application. Les résultats de nos simulations montrent des gains importants en termes de débit atteint dans les scénarios de haute densité. Ensuite, nous étudions l’impact de la nouvelle adaptation sur les mécanismes de sélection de débit actuellement utilisés. D'après les résultats obtenus, 1'adaptation proposée peut être appliquée sans avoir besoin de modifications substantielles des algorithmes de sélection de débit. Pour améliorer l'équité entre les différents utilisateurs, nous élaborons une nouvelle approche distribuée pour adapter conjointement le mécanisme de détection de signal et le contrôle de la puissance de transmission. Cette approche est évaluée ensuite dans différents scénarios de simulation de haute densité où elle prouve sa capacité à résoudre les problèmes d'équité en particulier en présence de nœuds d'anciennes générations dans le réseau, cela tout en améliorant le débit moyen d'un facteur 4 par rapport à la performance conventionnelle du standard. Enfin, nous concevons et mettons en œuvre une solution centralisée basée sur l'apprentissage à base de réseaux de neurones. Cette approche repose sur l'adaptation conjointe de puissance de transmission et du mécanisme de détection du signal. [...] / Despite their remarkable success, the first widely spread versions of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) standard, IEEE 802. 11 a/b/g, featured low spectral efficiencies that are becoming insufficient to satisfy the explosive growth in capacity and coverage demands. Thanks to the advances in the communication theory and the use of the 5 GHz frequency band, the IEEE 802.11n and recently the IEEE 802.1lac amendments improved the Physical Layer (PHY) data rates by introducing Multiple-Input Multiple Output (MIMO) techniques, higher Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), etc. Today, after almost two decades of its first appearance, Wi-Fi is presented as a gigabit wireless technology. However, the full potential of the latest PHY layer advances cannot be enabled in all real world deployment scenarios. With the rapidly increasing density of WLAN deployments and the huge popularity of Wi-Fi enabled devices, spatial reuse must be optimized. On another hand, the new challenging use case environments and the integration of mobile networks mainly for cellular offloading are limiting the opportunity of the current Wi-Fi generations to provide better quality at lower cost.In this thesis, we contribute to the current standardization efforts aiming to leverage the Wi-Fi efficiency in high density environments. At the time of writing this document, the IEEE 802.11ax Task Group (TG) is developing the specification for the High Efficiency WLAN (HEW) standard (next Wi-Fi evolution). Rather than continuing to target increased theoretical peak throughputs, we focus in the context of HEW on improving the throughput experienced by users in real life conditions where many other devices, belonging to neighboring overlapping networks, simultaneously contend to gain access. To enhance this performance, we propose a dynamic adaptation of the carrier sensing mechanism. Compare to controlling the transmission power, the proposed mechanism has more incentives because it benefits directly the concerned user. Extensive simulation results show impor1ant throughput gains in dense scenarios. Then, we study the impact of the new adaptation on the current rate control algorithms. We find that our adaptation mechanism operates efficiently without substantially modifying these algorithms that are widely used in today's operating WLANs. Furthermore, after analyzing the fairness performance of the proposed adaptation, we devise a new approach to jointly adapt the carrier sensing and the transmission power in order to preserve higher fairness degrees while improving the spatial reuse. This approach is evaluated in different dense deployment scenarios where it proves its capability to resolve the unfairness issues especially in the presence of legacy nodes in the network, while improving the achieved throughput by 4 times compared to the standard performance. Finally, we design and implement centralized learning-based solution that uses also an approach based on joint adaptation of transmission power and carrier sensing. This new solution takes benefit from the capability of artificial neural networks to model complex nonlinear functions to optimize the spatial reuse in dense WLANs while preserving fairness among contending nodes. The different contributions of this work have helped bring efficient solutions for future WiFi networks. We have presented these solutions to the IEEE 802.11ax TG where they were identified as important potential technical improvements for the next WLAN standard.