Abstract
In this paper, the concept of SDN (Software Defined Networking) is extended to be applied to wireless networks. Traditionally, in a wired SDN environment, the OpenFlow protocol is the communication protocol used to configure the flow table of forwarding elements (i.e., switches and Access Points). However, although in IEEE 802.11 networks there is no concept of forwarding, the SDN paradigm could also be applied to set up the wireless network dynamically, in order to improve the performance. In this case, not only the network elements, that is the Access Points, but also the mobile elements should configure their link and physical layers parameters following the guidelines of a centralized SDN controller. In particular, we propose a mechanism called DEDCA (Dynamic Enhanced Distributed Channel Access) to manage the channel access in wireless networks, and a framework that enables its implementation in 802.11-based wireless networks using SDN technology. The key aspect of this alternative solution is the control over the contention window size of the wireless terminals. Thus, an adequate response to dynamic and short-term Quality of Service (QoS) requirements can be offered to services running on these networks. DEDCA mechanism relies upon the use of a scalar parameter called gain. The mathematical model which has allowed us to obtain this parameter is presented and evaluated in this paper. Finally, the usefulness of the proposed solutions have been evaluated by means of their implementation in an example case.
Highlights
Wireless networks have experimented an exponential growth in the last few years
Single Board Computer (SBC) devices like Raspberry-pi or Odroid produce a further expansion of wireless networks, especially for real-time applications in IoT environments, which are Quality of Service (QoS) aware
We propose DEDCA (Dynamic Enhanced Distributed Channel Access) mechanism, an alternative solution to response to dynamic QoS requirements in 802.11 network based on the definition of Terminal Categories (TC)
Summary
Wireless networks have experimented an exponential growth in the last few years. Currently, wireless is the most used technology by devices to access to the Internet or to communicate with one another or throughout an access point (AP). Different backoff values are defined for each access category, according by the physical layer supported by IEEE 802.11e These values are fixed and cannot be dynamically modified to maintain the QoS requirements against network changes or to response to dynamic application needs. In this paper it is proposed an easy-to-use mathematical model, which allows the development of new QoS policies able to adapt to the network dynamics in real time The mathematical model, another contribution of this work, relies only on the calculation of a scalar value called gain. We propose a SDN (Software Defined Networking)-based framework that takes advantage of the centralized management of the network to give a response to dynamic QoS requirements in 802.11 networks by applying the DEDCA mechanism.
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