A Multi-Priority Service Differentiated and Adaptive Backoff Mechanism over IEEE 802.11 DCF for Wireless Mobile Networks

Backoff mechanism serves as one of the key technologies in the MAC-layer of wireless mobile networks. The traditional Binary Exponential Backoff (BEB) mechanism in IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) and other existing backoff mechanisms poses several performance issues. For instance, the Contention Window (CW) oscillations occur frequently; a low delay QoS guarantee cannot be provided for real-time transmission, and services with different priorities are not differentiated. For these problems, we present a novel Multi-Priority service differentiated and Adaptive Backoff (MPAB) algorithm over IEEE 802.11 DCF for wireless mobile networks in this paper. In this algorithm, the backoff stage is chosen adaptively according to the channel status and traffic priority, and the forwarding and receding transition probability between the adjacent backoff stages for different priority traffic can be controlled and adjusted for demands at any time. We further employ the 2-dimensional Markov chain model to analyze the algorithm, and derive the analytical expressions of the saturation throughput and average medium access delay. Both the accuracy of the expressions and the algorithm performance are verified through simulations. The results show that the performance of the MPAB algorithm can offer a higher throughput and lower delay than the BEB algorithm.