Increasing Voice Capacity over IEEE 802.11 WLAN Using Virtual Access Points

Voice capacity over IEEE 802.11 networks can be increased with time synchronized medium access, but it is restricted to single hop networks only. We propose a collaborative mechanism that enables client nodes to carry out the time synchronization on ad hoc basis, thereby extends the time synchronized access mechanism over multiple hops, and increases voice capacity considerably. To model real scenario closely, we consider the impact of channel error and employ a Markov chain to determine delay and loss in both medium access and in queue which is then used to derive user perceived voice quality using ITU-T E-model. Our model is then used to determine voice capacity of multichannel, multihop networks. The impact of data rate, interference range, and multiple channels are also analyzed.