QoS In WLAN

By
Abdulbaset Hassan
Muneer Bazama

Outline
Introduction
QoS Parameters.
802.11 medium access control schemes
(MAC).
802.11e medium access control schemes
(MAC).
Conclusion.
Reference.

Introduction
What is 802.11?
802.11 refers to a family of specifications developed
by the IEEE for wireless LAN technology.
802.11 Standards.
1997 - 802.11 up to 2Mbps (900MHZ).
1999 - 802.11b 2.4GHZ and up to 11Mbps.
1999 802.11a 5GHZ and up to 54Mbps.
200x 802.11g 2.4GHZ and up to 54Mbps.
200x 802.11e for QoS.

Quality of Service (QoS)

QoS is the capability to provide resource

assurance in a network.
QoS Parameters:
Bandwidth.
Delay.
Packet loss rate.
Jitter.

medium access control 802.11

.schemes (MAC)
There are two basic medium
access control (MAC)
modes:
Distributed Coordination
Function (DCF).
Point Coordination Function
(PCF).

Distributed Coordination
Function (DCF)
Contention-Based.
Based on Carrier Sense Multiple Access with
Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) algorithm.
Uses a Contention (Backoff) algorithm.
Designed for a best-effort service.
Supports Asynchronous transmission.

Example of DCF
B1 = 25

B1 = 5
wait

data

data
B2 = 20

wait
B2 = 15

B1 and B2 are backoff intervals

at nodes 1 and 2

B2 = 10

Limitation of Distributed
Coordination Function (DCF)

Does not provide any QoS guarantees.

Does not support real-time application.
Designed for equal priorities.
Does not support the concept of
differentiating frames with different user
priorities.

Point Coordination Function

(PCF)

Contention free-based.
Uses a centralized polling scheme.
Differentiation Considered based on priority.
Supports synchronous transmission.
Supports time-bounded multimedia
applications.

Limitation of Point Coordination

Function (PCF)
poor QoS performance.
Uses a simple round-robin
algorithm, which can not handle the
various QoS requirements.
Transmission time of the polled
stations is unknown.

Hybrid Coordination Function

(HCF)
There are two methods of channel
access:
Enhanced DCF channel access
(EDCA).
HCF controlled channel access
(HCCA).

Enhanced DCF Channel

Access (EDCA)
Contention-Based channel access.
Provides service differentiation.
Classifies the traffic into 8 different
classes.
Each station has 4 access categories to
provide service differentiation.

Pri 8

Backoff
(AIFSN0)

AC1

Backoff
(AIFSN1)

AC2

Backoff
(AIFSN2)

AC3

Backoff
(AIFSN3)

Transmission Opportunity (TXOP): is the time interval permitted for a particular STA to transmit packets.

Transmission Attempt

Pri 1

AC0

Scheduler (resolves virtual collisions by

granting TXOP to highest priority

8 User priorities per QSTA

Pri 0

8 User priorities mapping to 4 Access Categories

EDCA (Cont.)

EDCA (Cont.)
Priority

Access
Category (AC)

Designation
(Informative)

Best Effort

Best Effort

Best Effort

Video Probe

Video

Video

Voice

Voice

HCF Controlled Channel

Access ( HCCA)
Operates in CFP and CP.
Provides Guaranteed Services
with a much higher probability
than EDCA.
Combines the advantages of PCF
and DCF.
Coordinates the traffic in any
fashion (not just round- robin).

Conclusion
The IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN (WLAN) has
become one of the most widely used wireless
technologies in these days.
The 802.11 standards can not provide any
QoS guarantees due to poor performance.
The 802.11e offers QoS support to timesensitive applications, such as, audio and
video communications.

References
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Paal E. Engelstad and Olav N osterbo, Analysis of QoS in WLAN,

Telektronikk 1.2005. (http://folk.uio.no/paalee)
Priyank Garg, Rushabh Doshi, Russell Greene, Mary Baker, Majid
Malek, Xiaoyan Cheng, Using IEEE 802.11e MAC for QoS over
Wireless, 2003 IEEE.
Jie MaYuan'an Liu,Bihua Tang, QoS Research and Design for
WLAN, Proceedings of ISCIT2005.
J.K.Choi, J.S.Park, J.H. Lee, K.S. Ryu, Review on QoS issues in
IEEE 802.11 W-LAN, Feb. 20-22, 2006 ICACT2006.
Jose Villalon, Pedro Cuenca and Luis Orozco-Barbosa, Limitations
and capabilities of QoSSupport in IEEE 802.11 WLANS, 2005 IEEE.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11e.