Abstract-Since 2005, IEEE 802.11-based networks have been able to provide a certain level of quality of service (QoS) by the means of service differentiation, due to the IEEE 802.11e amendment. However, no mechanism or method has been standardized to accurately evaluate the amount of resources remaining on a given channel. Such an evaluation would, however, be a good asset for bandwidth-constrained applications. In multihop ad hoc networks, such evaluation becomes even more difficult. Consequently, despite the various contributions around this research topic, the estimation of the available bandwidth still represents one of the main issues in this field. In this paper, we propose an improved mechanism to estimate the available bandwidth in IEEE 802.11-based ad hoc networks. Through simulations, we compare the accuracy of the estimation we propose to the estimation performed by other state-of-the-art QoS protocols, BRuIT, AAC, and QoS-AODV.Index Terms-Wireless communications, IEEE 802.11, ad hoc networks, quality of service, available bandwidth estimation.

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This article presents a theoretical modeling of a small but basic scenario that shows a great inequity in medium access between nodes using the IEEE 802.11 DCF mode. In this configuration, two terminals evolve independently and are almost never synchronized, which results in a serious performance issue for a third emitter in between. The results are compared to simulation results and a discussion on the different performance loss causes follows.