An analytical packet/flow-level modelling approach for wireless LANs with Quality-of-Service support

We present an analytical packet/flow-level modelling approach for the performance analysis of IEEE 802.11e WLAN, where we explicitly take into account QoS differentiation mechanisms based on minimum contention window size values and Arbitration InterFrame Space (AIFS) values, as included in the Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) protocol of the 802.11e standard. We first enhance the packet-level approach previously used for best-effort WLANs to include traffic classes with different QoS requirements. The packet-level model approach yields service weights that discriminate among traffic classes. From these observations, the packet/flow-level model for 802.11e is the \textit{generalized} discriminatory processor-sharing (GDPS) queueing model where the state-dependent system capacity is distributed among active traffic classes according to state-dependent priority weights. Extensive simulations show that the discriminatory processor-sharing model closely represents the flow behavior of 802.11e

How do Wireless Chains Behave? The Impact of MAC Interactions

In a Multi-hop Wireless Networks (MHWN), packets are routed between source and destination using a chain of intermediate nodes; chains are a fundamental communication structure in MHWNs whose behavior must be understood to enable building effective protocols. The behavior of chains is determined by a number of complex and interdependent processes that arise as the sources of different chain hops compete to transmit their packets on the shared medium. In this paper, we show that MAC level interactions play the primary role in determining the behavior of chains. We evaluate the types of chains that occur based on the MAC interactions between different links using realistic propagation and packet forwarding models. We discover that the presence of destructive interactions, due to different forms of hidden terminals, does not impact the throughput of an isolated chain significantly. However, due to the increased number of retransmissions required, the amount of bandwidth consumed is significantly higher in chains exhibiting destructive interactions, substantially influencing the overall network performance. These results are validated by testbed experiments. We finally study how different types of chains interfere with each other and discover that well behaved chains in terms of self-interference are more resilient to interference from other chains

Achieving end-to-end fairness in 802.11e based wireless multi-hop mesh networks

To mitigate the damaging impacts caused by interference and hidden terminals, it has proposed to use orthogonal channels in multi-hop wireless mesh networks. We demonstrate however that even if these issues are completely eliminated with perfectly assigned channels, gross unfairness can still exist amongst competing flows which traverse multiple hops. We propose the use of 802.lle's TXOP mechanism to restore/enforce fairness. The proposed scheme is simple, implementable using off-the-shelf devices and fully decentralised (requires no message passing)

Achieving end-to-end fairness in 802.11e based wireless multi-hop mesh networks

To mitigate the damaging impacts caused by interference and hidden terminals, it has proposed to use orthogonal channels in multi-hop wireless mesh networks. We demonstrate however that even if these issues are completely eliminated with perfectly assigned channels, gross unfairness can still exist amongst competing flows which traverse multiple hops. We propose the use of 802.lle's TXOP mechanism to restore/enforce fairness. The proposed scheme is simple, implementable using off-the-shelf devices and fully decentralised (requires no message passing)

Performance modeling of a bottleneck node in an IEEE 802.11 ad-hoc network

This paper presents a performance analysis of wireless ad-hoc networks, with IEEE 802.11 as the underlying Wireless LAN technology. WLAN has, due to the fair radio resource sharing at the MAC-layer, the tendency to share the capacity equally amongst the active nodes, irrespective of their loads. An inherent drawback of this sharing policy is that a node that serves as a relay-node for multiple flows is likely to become a bottleneck. This paper proposes to model such a bottleneck by a fluid-flow model. Importantly, this is a model at the flow-level: flows arrive at the bottleneck node, and are served according to the sharing policy mentioned above. Assuming Poisson initiations of new flow transfers, we obtain insightful, robust, and explicit expressions for characteristics related to the overall flow transfer time, the buffer occupancy, and the packet delay at the bottleneck node. The analysis is enabled by a translation of the buffer dynamics at the bottleneck node in terms of an M/G/1 queueing model. We conclude the paper by an assessment of the impact of alternative sharing policies (which can be obtained by the IEEE 802.11E version), in order to improve the performance of the bottleneck