Frame aggregation

Frame aggregation is a feature of the IEEE 802.11e and 802.11n wireless LAN standards that increases throughput by sending two or more data frames in a single transmission.

Every frame transmitted by an 802.11 device has a significant amount of overhead, including radio level headers, media access control (MAC) frame fields, interframe spacing, and acknowledgment of transmitted frames. At the highest data rates, this overhead can consume more bandwidth than the payload data frame.[1] To address this issue, the draft 802.11n standard defines two types of frame aggregation: Mac Service Data Unit (MSDU) aggregation and Message Protocol Data Unit (MPDU) aggregation. Both types group several data frames into one large frame. Because management information needs to be specified only once per frame, the ratio of payload data to the total volume of data is higher, allowing higher throughput.