EDCA remapping in ad hoc IEEE 802.11 WLANs: An incentive compatible discouragement scheme

IEEE 802.11 networks are known to be vulnerable to MAC-layer misbehavior. We consider EDCA Remapping, an attack upon the Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) medium access function. It consists in remapping frames to a higher-priority Access Category to achieve a better network service level. This attack is easy to perform yet hard to prevent. We propose a distributed discouragement scheme and analyze its game-theoretic model. The scheme does not rely on station identities or a trusted third party; it leads to operating points where EDCA Remapping is either counterproductive or harmless.