Increasing Performance of the 802.11e Protocol through Access Category Shifting

Wireless network access has become a must in many public places as well as enterprises. It is known that in wireless networks service quality is still not always optimal for all service types. The standard IEEE 802.11e aims at resolving this issue by introducing priority classes. In many situations these priority classes serve the purpose of providing better service where better service is needed. One major drawback of the protocol is that the channel may not be utilized in an optimal way which implies that customers receive not the best possible service. We propose a priority shifting mechanism to resolve this issue. Simulation results show that the priority class shifting can yield up to 20% improvement in the overall channel throughput for typical network situations and hence improves service especially for lower priority traffic.