A scheduler based architecture for QoS provisioning in IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol

In this paper, we propose a scheduler based architecture to provide QoS support in IEEE 802.11. Our architecture extends Cali's dynamic p-persistent 802.11 by providing multiple traffic classes while using separate parameters for QoS and channel access functionalities. We used a weight-based fair scheduler to obtain throughput service differentiation at the node level. Compared to 802.11 EDCF, the scheduler-based architecture gives accurate throughput differentiation and easy tuning. We present the performance results of our scheme using nodes with symmetric traffic flows. The simulation results show that the scheduler based scheme consistently achieves the desired throughput service differentiation among traffic classes, better channel access latencies, incurs very little overhead, and gives higher system throughput than EDCF.