An Implementation of the User-Centric QoS Management Approach in Wireless Home Networks

Wireless networking technologies are becoming very popular for distribution of digital content throughout the home. However, media distribution is not ready yet to satisfy users' quality expectations in wireless networks. Due to bandwidth variations and high error rates, a number of quality of service (QoS) mechanisms have to be deployed in the network in order to guarantee a certain level of quality. We propose a user-centric QoS management approach based on user preferences. Unlike traditional QoS approaches that always give multimedia applications a pre-determined high priority due to their strict latency and loss requirements (e.g. Wi-Fi multimedia), the proposed approach classifies traffic according to user preferences, thus, ensuring a certain quality regardless of the application requirements. The application priorities are assigned according to user profiles and automatically updated in case of changes in the network or user environment. The implementation details and experimental results demonstrate a practical application of the described approach in the wireless home network. The paper suggests that the introduced management approach will significantly contribute to the overall user experience in digital home.