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Experimental Assessment of Trigger-Based MU-OFDMA for Deterministic Wi-Fi 6 Operation on COTS Devices
Federico Orozco-Santos1, Víctor Sempere-Payá2, Javier Silvestre-Blanes3
1Instituto Tecnológico de Informática (ITI), 46980 Valencia, Spain.
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)
|June 12, 2026
Summary
Wi-Fi 6's Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) improves industrial network stability. Coordinated OFDMA on commercial devices significantly reduces latency and jitter compared to older Wi-Fi, enabling predictable communication.
Area of Science:
- Wireless Communication
- Industrial Networking
- Network Performance Analysis
Background:
- Industrial applications increasingly require reliable wireless networks with predictable performance.
- IEEE 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) introduced Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Trigger-based Uplink Access (TUA), and Target Wake Time (TWT) to enhance Wi-Fi for deterministic transmissions.
- Real-world performance of these features depends on device implementation and configuration, not just the standard.
Purpose of the Study:
- To practically implement and experimentally assess OFDMA-based deterministic operation using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) Wi-Fi 6 hardware.
- To compare the performance of OFDMA against conventional single-user Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) under realistic conditions.
- To identify practical implementation constraints and benefits of Wi-Fi 6 for industrial communication.
Main Methods:
- Configured Wi-Fi 6 COTS hardware with driver-level enabling of high-efficiency mechanisms.
- Conducted controlled testbed measurements and complementary simulations.
- Compared OFDMA operation against single-user OFDM under realistic traffic and interference.
Main Results:
- Coordinated OFDMA operation on COTS devices improved temporal stability, reducing jitter by up to 23% and latency by approximately 44% compared to single-user OFDM.
- Simultaneous Resource Unit (RU)-based transmissions reduced contention variability.
- Target Wake Time (TWT)-based activity windows improved temporal alignment.
- RU subdivision presented a throughput trade-off for industrial traffic dimensioning.
Conclusions:
- Wi-Fi 6, when OFDMA, trigger-based access, and timing mechanisms are jointly configured, can support deterministic industrial communication.
- Empirical evidence confirms the potential of Wi-Fi 6 for time-critical industrial applications.
- Implementation constraints in COTS devices need consideration when deploying Wi-Fi 6 for deterministic networking.
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