A high performance QoS supportive protocol for wireless LANs

A QoS supportive adaptive polling (QAP) protocol for wireless LANs is introduced. QAP operates under an infrastructure wireless LAN, where an access point (AP) polls the wireless nodes in order to grant them permission to transmit. The polled node sends data directly to the destination node. We consider bursty traffic conditions, under which the protocol operates efficiently. The polling scheme is based on an adaptive algorithm according to which it is most likely that an active node is polled. Also, QAP takes into account packet priorities, so it supports QoS by means of the highest priority first packet buffer discipline and the priority distinctive polling scheme. Lastly, the protocol combines efficiency and fairness, since it prohibits a single node to dominate the medium permanently. QAP is compared to the efficient learning automata-based polling (LEAP) protocol, and is shown to have superior performance.