Adaptive Network Resource Management in IEEE 802.11 Wireless Random Access MAC

Effective and efficient management of wireless network resources is attracting more and more research attention, due to the rapid growing deployment of wireless mesh and ad hoc networks and to the increasing demand for Quality of Service (QoS) support in these networks. This paper proposes an adaptive network resource management scheme in the popular IEEE 802.11 random access MAC by adaptively adjusting the minimum contention window sizes of traffic flows. First, a novel Generalized Processor Sharing (GPS) model is presented for the IEEE 802.11 random access MAC revealing the relationship between the minimum contention window size of a traffic flow and the amount of network resource this flow can receive. Using this GPS MAC model, a feedback control system model for the proposed adaptive network resource management system is developed, by directly extending our previous work in wireline GPS networks. Based on the feedback control system model, adaptive P and adaptive PI controllers are designed, and their performances are studied in simulations. Simulation results show that by using the designed controllers, the proposed adaptive network resource management approach is able to provide guaranteed distinct QoS support to traffic flows.