Challenges to estimate end-to-end available bandwidth in IEEE 802.11-based ad hoc networks

With the widespread of IEEE 802.11 based ad hoc networks as the extend of wired networks and the importance of knowing available bandwidth to network operators, users, and bandwidth-sensitive applications, available bandwidth estimation in 802.11 based ad hoc networks has been a focus of recent research. However no consensus has arrived on how to precisely measure the available bandwidth in ad hoc networks, which makes all existing approaches are on the stage of experiment and simulation and no standard is agreed yet. We review the state of the art and present a comprehensive analysis of the challenges to estimate available bandwidth in 802.11 based ad hoc networks.