In this paper, we propose and study two different bandwidth partition schemes for integrated voice/video/data traffic in the IEEE 802.11e wireless LANs: a Static/fixed bandwidth Partition scheme, and a Dynamic budget Partition scheme. The proposed schemes are compared and evaluated via extensive simulations.

In mobile cellular networks, bandwidth is deterministic in terms of number of channels by frequency division, time division, or code division. On the other hand, bandwidth partition schemes in the contention-based medium access control (MAC) in distributed wireless LANs are extremely challenging due to the contention-based nature. In this paper, we propose and study a dynamic bandwidth partition with finer-tune (DP-FT) scheme for integrated voice/video/data traffic in the IEEE 802.11e wireless LANs.

Bandwidth allocation schemes have been well studied for mobile cellular networks. However, there is no study about this aspect reported for IEEE 802.11 contention-based distributed wireless LANs. In cellular networks, bandwidth is deterministic in terms of the number of channels by frequency division, time division, or code division. On the contrary, bandwidth allocation in contention-based distributed wireless LANs is extremely challenging due to its contention-based nature, packet-based network, and the most important aspect: only one channel is available, competed for by an unknown number of stations. As a consequence, guaranteeing bandwidth and allocating bandwidth are both challenging issues. In this paper, we address these difficult issues. We propose and study nine bandwidth allocation schemes, called sharing schemes, with guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS) for integrated voice/video/data traffic in IEEE 802.11e contention-based distributed wireless LANs. A guard period is proposed to prevent bandwidth allocation from overprovisioning and is for best-effort data traffic. Our study and analysis show that the guard period is a key concept for QoS guarantees in a contention-based channel. The proposed schemes are compared and evaluated via extensive simulations.

We propose two contention-based medium access control (MAC) mechanisms to provide quality of service (QoS) for variable bit rate (VBR) voice over IP (VoIP) in IEEE 802.11e contention-based channel access (EDCA) wireless LANs (WLANs): Access time-based admission control (ATAC) and access point dynamic access (AP-DA). Simulation results indicate that the proposed mechanisms offer a satisfactory solution for QoS of VBR VoIP; the ATAC algorithm outperforms the EDCA and significantly improves QOS of VBR VoIP sessions in terms of average delay and delay distribution; and the AP-DA algorithm effectively balances downlink and uplink VoIP sessions.

In this paper, we propose a novel contention-based protocol called backoff counter reservation and classifying stations for the IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function (DCF). In the proposed scheme, each station has three states: idle, reserved, and contentious. A station is in the idle state if it has no frame ready to transmit. A station is in the reserved state if it has a frame ready to transmit and this frame's backoff counter has been successfully announced through the previous successfully transmitted frame so that other stations know this information. A station is in the contentious state if it has a frame ready to transmit, but this frame's backoff counter has not been successfully announced to other stations. All the stations in the idle state, the reserved state, and the contentious state form an idle group, a reserved group, and a contentious group, respectively. Two backoff schemes are proposed in the BCR-CS protocol based on the number of stations in the contentious group including the optimal pseudo-p-persistent scheme. The proposed schemes are compared with the DCF and the enhanced collision avoidance (ECA) scheme in the literature. Extensive simulations and some analytical analysts are carried out. Our results show that all proposed schemes outperform both the DCF and the ECA, and the BCR-CS with optimal pseudo-p-persistent scheme is the best scheme among the four schemes

Adaptive multimedia services are very attractive since resources in wireless/mobile networks are relatively scarce and widely variable, and more importantly the resource fluctuation caused by mobility and channel fading can be mitigated using adaptive services. Therefore, there are extensive research activities on Quality of Service (QoS), call admission control, as well as bandwidth degradation and adaptation for adaptive multimedia services in wireless/mobile networks in recent years. However, fairness of bandwidth degradation has largely been ignored in previous work and remains an important issue in adaptive multimedia service provisioning. In this paper, we propose and study proportional degradation service provisioning in wireless/mobile networks that offer multiple classes of adaptive multimedia services. The proposed proportional degradation fairness model guarantees the proportional bandwidth degradation among different classes of services. Two proportional degradation scenarios are studied in this paper. In the first scenario, we study the proportional degradation provisioning with two QoS parameters for adaptive multimedia: the degradation ratio (DR) and the degradation degree (DD). In the second scenario, we study the proportional degradation provisioning with a new QoS parameter for adaptive multimedia: the degradation area (DA). For each scenario, based on the QoS parameters, proportional degradation adaptation algorithms are proposed to approximate the proportional degradation model, to fairly adapt calls' degradations, to utilize the system resource efficiently, as well as to optimize QoS parameters. Performance studies show that in the first scenario, proportional DR has been achieved very well, whereas proportional DD has not been well achieved. In other words, DR outperforms DD in terms of proportional degradation. In the second scenario, proportional DA has been well achieved. Furthermore, bandwidth resources have been efficiently utilized and DA has been minimized. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In order to support multimedia applications such as voice and video over the wireless medium, a contention-based channel access function, called enhanced distributed coordination function (EDCF), is being developed in the emerging standard IEEE 802.11e. In EDCF, differentiated services are provided for different traffic classes. In this paper, we propose a two-level protection and guarantee mechanism for voice and video traffic in IEEE 802.11e wireless LANs. In the first-level protection, the existing voice and video flows are protected from the new and other existing voice and video flows. In the second-level protection, the voice and video flows are protected from the best-effort data traffic. For each protection level, a couple of protection mechanisms are proposed. Extensive simulation results show that the proposed two-level protection and guarantee mechanism is very effective in terms of protecting and guaranteeing existing voice and video flows as well as fully utilizing the channel capacity.

Best-effort data control and admission control are vital to guarantee quality of service for real-time (voice and video) transmissions in the IEEE 802.11e wireless LANs. In this paper, we propose and study a global data parameter control scheme integrated with a measurement-based admission control scheme for the IEEE 802.11e enhanced distributed channel access. In the proposed global data control scheme, the access point dynamically controls best-effort data parameters of stations globally based on traffic condition. Such a global/centralized data parameter control mechanism provides the best fairness for data transmissions among stations. In the proposed centrally-assisted distributed admission control scheme for voice and video transmissions, stations listen to available budgets from the access point to make decisions on acceptance or rejection of a voice or video stream. Such a scheme provides good differentiation among different access categories and provides good fairness among real-time streams within the same access category. The proposed mechanisms are evaluated via extensive simulations. Studies show that, with the proposed global data control scheme and the admission control scheme, quality of service can be greatly improved while maintaining a good utilization.

In this paper, the KIII dynamic neural network is introduced and it is applied to the prediction of complex temporal sequences. In our approach, KIII gives a step-by-step prediction of the direction of the currency exchange rate change. Previously, various multiplayer perceptron (MLP) networks and recurrent neural networks have been successfully implemented for this application. Results obtained by KIII compare favorably with other methods.