WBAP: A Wireless Broadcast Access Protocol for the IEEE802.11bc Enhanced Broadcast Service

The IEEE802.11bc working group is currently working on the definition of the enhanced Broadcast Service (eBCS). This new service aims to provide the means to the distribution of local information, such as information announcements, sensor data and multimedia material to large number of users. Among the main challenges to be addressed towards the deployment of the eBCS standard, the Medium Access Mechanism (MAC) plays a major role. In this paper, we introduce Wireless Broadcast Access Protocol (WBAP), a novel MAC protocol addressing the major challenges required to the successful integration of broadcast services into the IEEE802.11 protocol stack. The paper includes a detailed description and a performance evaluation of our proposal. Our results show that WBAP is a promising solution to the deployment of the eBCS.