Adaptive fair channel allocation for QoS enhancement in IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs

The emerging widespread use of real-time multimedia applications over wireless networks makes the support of quality of service (QoS) a key problem. In this paper, we focus on QoS support mechanisms for IEEE 802.11 wireless ad-hoc networks. First, we review limitations of the upcoming IEEE 802.11e enhanced DCF (EDCF) and other enhanced MAC schemes that have been proposed to support QoS for 802.11 ad-hoc networks. Then, we describe a new scheme called adaptive fair EDCF that extends EDCF, by increasing the contention window during deferring periods when the channel is busy, and by using an adaptive fast backoff mechanism when the channel is idle. Our scheme computes an adaptive backoff threshold for each priority level by taking into account the channel load. The new scheme significantly improves the quality of multimedia applications. Moreover, it increases the overall throughput obtained both in medium and high load cases. Simulution results show that our new scheme outperforms EDCF and other enhanced schemes. Finally, we show that the adaptive fair EDCF scheme achieves a high degree of fairness among applications of the same priority level

A control theoretic approach to achieve proportional fairness in 802.11e EDCA WLANs

This paper considers proportional fairness amongst ACs in an EDCA WLAN for provision of distinct QoS requirements and priority parameters. A detailed theoretical analysis is provided to derive the optimal station attempt probability which leads to a proportional fair allocation of station throughputs. The desirable fairness can be achieved using a centralised adaptive control approach. This approach is based on multivariable statespace control theory and uses the Linear Quadratic Integral (LQI) controller to periodically update CWmin till the optimal fair point of operation. Performance evaluation demonstrates that the control approach has high accuracy performance and fast convergence speed for general network scenarios. To our knowledge this might be the first time that a closed-loop control system is designed for EDCA WLANs to achieve proportional fairness

Scheduling for next generation WLANs: filling the gap between offered and observed data rates

In wireless networks, opportunistic scheduling is used to increase system throughput by exploiting multi-user diversity. Although recent advances have increased physical layer data rates supported in wireless local area networks (WLANs), actual throughput realized are significantly lower due to overhead. Accordingly, the frame aggregation concept is used in next generation WLANs to improve efficiency. However, with frame aggregation, traditional opportunistic schemes are no longer optimal. In this paper, we propose schedulers that take queue and channel conditions into account jointly, to maximize throughput observed at the users for next generation WLANs. We also extend this work to design two schedulers that perform block scheduling for maximizing network throughput over multiple transmission sequences. For these schedulers, which make decisions over long time durations, we model the system using queueing theory and determine users' temporal access proportions according to this model. Through detailed simulations, we show that all our proposed algorithms offer significant throughput improvement, better fairness, and much lower delay compared with traditional opportunistic schedulers, facilitating the practical use of the evolving standard for next generation wireless networks

A simple and fair proposal to improve the performance of the IEEE 802.11e enhanced coordination function

A simple and fair proposal to improve the performance of the IEEE 802.11e standard is presented in this paper. Our proposal is accomplished by means of increasing the priority of those queues that have not been able to transmit during certain period of time, depending on the elapsed time waiting to transmit. Results show that this proposal improves the performance of wireless networks using IEEE 802.11e EDCF since low priority queues reduce their waiting time to access the channel and high priority queues are not degraded.8th IFIP/IEEE International conference on Mobile and Wireless CommunicationRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Priority-Oriented Adaptive Control With QoS Guarantee for Wireless LANs.

In today’s wireless networks there is a great need for QoS, because of the time-bounded voice, audio and video traffic. A new QoS enhanced standard is being standardized by the IEEE 802.11e workgroup. It uses a contention free access mechanism called Hybrid Control Channel Access (HCCA) to guarantee QoS. However, HCCA is not efficient for all types of time-bounded traffic. This work proposes an alternative protocol which could be adapted in HCF (Hybrid Coordination Function). The Priority Oriented Adaptive Control with QoS Guarantee (POAC-QG) is a complete centralized channel access mechanism, it is able to guarantee QoS for all types of multimedia network applications, it enhances the parameterized traffic with priorities, and it supports time division access using slots. Furthermore, it instantly negotiates the quality levels of the traffic streams according to their priorities, supporting multiple streams to the best quality it can achieve. POAC-QG compared to HCCA, provides higher channel utilization, adapts better to the characteristics of the different traffic types, differentiates the traffic streams more efficiently using priorities, and generally exhibits superior performance