MAC prioritization scheme resolving unfairness problem

IEEE 802.11e is an extension of IEEE 802.11 for the Quality of Service (QoS) enhancement for wireless LAN application using MAC layer priority scheme. The IEEE 802.11e standard divides the network traffic into four different categories by the traffic type. Delay-sensitive applications need a high media access priority, which can be achieved by using different MAC parameters. The priority scheme is also used for resolving the unfairness and bottleneck problems of multihop wireless networks, where nodes operate as host or relay nodes. It is well-known that these problems occur since there may exist overloaded nodes that the packets from various source nodes converge on. Fine control of access opportunity at MAC layer can deal with this unfairness situation. In this paper, we provide an analysis of the priority scheme based on CWmin which can induce a required throughput ratio, and verify it with simulation results. Also, the simulation results are given to verify that the unfairness and bottleneck problems in multihop networks are solved by using the proposed priority scheme.