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Providing quality of service in random access multi-hop wireless networks requires support from both medium access and packet scheduling algorithms. However, due to the distributed nature of ad hoc networks, nodes may not be able to determine the next packet that would be transmitted in a (hypothetical) centralized and ideal dynamic priority scheduler. In this paper, we develop two mechanisms for QoS communication in multi-hop wireless networks. First, we devise distributed priority scheduling, a technique that piggybacks the priority tag of a node's head-of-line packet onto handshake and data packets; e.g., RTS/DATA packets in IEEE 802.11. By monitoring transmitted packets, each node maintains a scheduling table which is used to assess the node's priority level relative to other nodes. We then incorporate this scheduling table into existing IEEE 802.11 priority back-off schemes to approximate the idealized schedule. Second, we observe that congestion, link errors, and the random nature of medium access prohibit an exact realization of the ideal schedule. Consequently, we devise a scheduling scheme termed multi-hop coordination so that downstream nodes can increase a packet's relative priority to make up for excessive delays incurred upstream. We next develop a simple analytical model to quantitatively explore these two mechanisms. In the former case, we study the impact of the probability of overhearing another packet's priority index on the scheme's ability to achieve the ideal schedule. In the latter case, we explore the role of multi-hop coordination in increasing the probability that a packet satisfies its end-to-end QoS target. Finally, we perform a set of ns-2 simulations to study the scheme's performance under more realistic conditions.

The IEEE 802.11 wireless media access standard supports multiple data rates at the physical layer. Moreover, various auto rate adaptation mechanisms at the medium access layer have been proposed to utilize this multi-rate capability by automatically adapting the transmission rate to best match the channel conditions. In this paper, we introduce the Opportunistic Auto Rate (OAR) protocol to better exploit durations of high-quality channels conditions. The key mechanism of the OAR protocol is to opportunistically send multiple back-to-back data packets whenever the channel quality is good. As channel coherence times typically exceed multiple packet transmission times for both mobile and non-mobile users, OAR achieves significant throughput gains as compared to state-of-the-art auto-rate adaptation mechanisms. Moreover, over longer time scales, OAR ensures that all nodes are granted channel access for the same time-shares as achieved by single-rate IEEE 802.11. We describe mechanisms to implement OAR on top of any existing auto-rate adaptation scheme in a nearly IEEE 802.11 compliant manner. We also analytically study OAR and characterize the delay jitter and the gains in throughput as a function of the channel conditions. Finally, we perform an extensive set of ns-2 simulations to study the impact of such factors as node velocity, channel conditions, and topology on the throughput of OAR.

Allocating resources for multimedia traffic flows with real-time performance requirements is an important challenge for future packet networks. However, in large-scale networks, individually managing each traffic flow on each of its traversed routers has fundamental scalability limitations, in both the control plane's requirements for signaling, state management, and admission control, and the data plane's requirements for per-flow scheduling mechanisms. In this paper, we develop a scalable architecture and algorithm for quality-of-service management termed egress admission control. In our approach, resource management and admission control are performed only at egress routers, without any coordination among backbone nodes or per-flow management. Our key technique is to develop a framework for admission control under a general "black box" model, which allows for cross traffic that cannot be directly measured, and scheduling policies that may be ill-described across many network nodes. By monitoring and controlling egress routers' class-based arrival and service envelopes, we show how network services can be provisioned via scalable control at the network edge. We illustrate the performance of our approach with a set of simulation experiments using highly bursty traffic flows and find that despite our use of distributed admission control, our approach is able to accurately control the system's admissible region under a wide range of conditions.

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