Multilink operation (MLO) is considered a key candidate technique in 802.11be, which allows devices to transmit and receive data using multiple links concurrently, thereby contributing to improving throughput and reducing latency. However, the performance of the MLO scheme will gradually degrade as the channel environment deteriorates. To tackle this problem, in this paper, we propose a synchronous multilink media access control (MAC) protocol with Automatic Repeat Request (called SML-ARQ). With SML-ARQ, in the contention process, MLDs are allowed to perform channel access procedures over multiple links concurrently; in the transmission process, MLDs partition a link packet into multiple blocks and then transmit these blocks using multiple links. Any failed division of a link packet is copied and retransmitted once using multiple channels concurrently; as a consequence, SML-ARQ can mitigate the adverse impact of transmission failure on system performance. A theoretical model is being developed to analyze the performance of the proposed SML-ARQ. Extensive simulations verify the efficiency of SML-ARQ and the accuracy of our theoretical model.

中文翻译：

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具有自动重复请求的同步多链路MAC协议的性能分析

多链路操作 (MLO) 被认为是 802.11be 中的关键候选技术，它允许设备同时使用多个链路发送和接收数据，从而有助于提高吞吐量并减少延迟。但是，随着信道环境的恶化，MLO 方案的性能会逐渐下降。为了解决这个问题，在本文中，我们提出了一种具有自动重复请求的同步多链路媒体访问控制（MAC）协议（称为 SML-ARQ）。使用 SML-ARQ，在竞争过程中，MLD 可以同时在多条链路上执行信道接入程序；在传输过程中，MLD 将一个链路包划分为多个块，然后使用多条链路传输这些块。一个链路分组的任何失败的分割被同时使用多个信道复制和重传一次；因此，SML-ARQ 可以减轻传输失败对系统性能的不利影响。正在开发一个理论模型来分析所提出的 SML-ARQ 的性能。广泛的模拟验证了 SML-ARQ 的效率和我们理论模型的准确性。