Adaptive Layer-3 Buffer Management Scheme for Domestic WLAN

The existing IEEE802.11 a/b/g/n provides robust and relatively low cost wireless services but there only provide best effort services. IEEE802.11e provides Quality of service (QoS) to the real time applications but the bandwidth distribution is controlled by the IEEE802.11e and network administrator has no controls over the QoS mechanisms. We propose a non-disruptive and yet low-cost QoS and Fairness provisioning solution over existing best-effort WLAN networks with an Adaptive layer-3 buffer management (AL3BM) Scheme for small domestic wireless network. The existing WLAN networks or hotspots can continue their operation without any major disruption or costly upgrade. AL3BM is implemented in a network router that sits between the wired and wireless network to control the heavy downlink traffic. The network administrator can partially controls the bandwidth allocation through the AL3BM. Simulations have been carried out to examine the proposed scheme in providing services differentiation, and fairness. The simulation results show that AL3BM improves the performance of the wireless end users. Hardware testbed is configured and the experimental results show that AL3BM provides QoS to the WLAN.