A Control Theoretic Approach to Distributed Optimal Configuration of 802.11 WLANs

The optimal configuration of the contention parameters of a WLAN depends on the network conditions in terms of number of stations and the traffic they generate. Following this observation, a considerable effort in the literature has been devoted to the design of distributed algorithms that optimally c...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Patras, Paul, Banchs, Albert|||0000-0003-3544-8537, Serrano, Pablo, Azcorra, Arturo|||0000-0002-5298-1248
Tipo de documento: artigo
Data de publicação:2011
País:España
Recursos:IMDEA Networks Institute
Repositório:IMDEA Networks Institute Digital Repository
Idioma:inglês
OAI Identifier:oai:dspace.networks.imdea.org:20.500.12761/485
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12761/485
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Q Science::Q Science (General)
Q Science::QA Mathematics::QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
T Technology::T Technology (General)
T Technology::TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
T Technology::TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
Descrição
Resumo:The optimal configuration of the contention parameters of a WLAN depends on the network conditions in terms of number of stations and the traffic they generate. Following this observation, a considerable effort in the literature has been devoted to the design of distributed algorithms that optimally configure the WLAN parameters based on current conditions. In this paper we propose a novel algorithm that, in contrast to previous proposals which are mostly based on heuristics, is sustained by mathematical foundations from multivariable control theory. A key advantage of the algorithm over existing approaches is that it is compliant with the 802.11 standard and can be implemented with current wireless cards without introducing any changes into the hardware or firmware. We study the performance of our proposal by means of theoretical analysis, simulations and a real implementation. Results show that the algorithm substantially outperforms previous approaches in terms of throughput and delay.