A Distributed Adaptive Algorithm for QoS In 802.11e Wireless Networks
Will Spearman and Jim Martin
International Symposium on Performance Evaluation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems (SPECTS 2007)
San Diego, California (USA), July 16-18, 2007
SPECTS_Summary
Recent developments in the use of wireless networks have created a need for service prioritization for network traffic that is sensitive to throughput, latency, and jitter. The IEEE 802.11e standard provides enhancements that allow traffic with specific needs to be differentiated from normal traffic. While these enhancements have been shown to effectively improve latency and throughput for high priority traffic, they do not offer precise nor consistent control of performance levels. We present a method to dynamically optimize 802.11e contention parameters to provide more granular control over the network’s quality of service (QoS). A distributed adaptive algorithm that extends 802.11e’s EDCA is presented. We show that the enhancement provides more granular and consistent performance than that provided by the static algorithm used in standard 802.11e.