End-to-end quality of service scheme for WLAN-wired networks

Abstract

Wireless local area network (WLAN) can be used to complement existing last-mile access networks such as ADSL and WiMAX, in the provision of telecommunication services. However, because of the use of IP, it is difficult to provide service guarantees to multimedia traffic such as voice and video. This paper seeks to address the challenge of the provision of quality of service (QoS) to WLAN access network users connected to a telecommunication service network over a wired backbone link. The focus of the paper is the interworking of the WLAN EDCA QoS scheme and the IP layer QoS scheme on the wired network in order to ensure that service guarantees are provided to multimedia traffic. The QoS interworking consists of mapping EDCA access categories (AC) to IP traffic classes in the wired network. The mapping function ensures the consistent application of QoS to the traffic classes on both the wireless and wired networks. The proposed scheme is evaluated and found to perform better than a WLAN-wired network without a QoS integration scheme.