Efficient QoS Scheduling Algorithm for Multimedia Services in IEEE 802.11e WLAN

As IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN) devices currently have gained wide popularity, demands on quality of service (QoS) capability have increased as well. Although IEEE 802.11e is proposed for the support of QoS by traffic and service differentiation, it still has weakness on the adapting the multimedia services which has the traffic characteristic of variable bit rate (VBR). In this paper, we first discuss problems of the current standard and analyze how to improve the QoS capability in IEEE 802.11e. In addition, we propose a new scheduling algorithm, referred to as ETA-EQN, which aims at supporting multimedia service in HCCA of IEEE 802.11e WLAN. Results from intensive simulations with NS-2 verify that ETA-EQN provides much better network performance in terms of throughput, delay, and packet loss.