Adapting Packet Fair Queueing Algorithms to Wireless Networks

Abstract

Bit errors are fairly common during transmission in a wireless network. As a result, a straight-forwarcl application of existing packet fair queueing (PFQ) algorithms from wireIine to wireless networks results in an inecient use of the Kmited wireless bandwidth. In this paper, we propose a simple approach for adapting the existing PFQ algorithms for the wire]ine networks to provide the same kind of long-term fairness guarantees while making efficient use of the wireless bandwidth. In the proposed approach, long-term fairness guarantees are provided by supplementing the bandwidth given to sessions which have not received satisfactory service in the short-term due to poor quahty of their wireless channel. To efficiently keep track of the amount of supplemental bandwidth for each session, the paper introduces the concept of a long-term fairness server. This concept. also allows one to easily integrate the proposed approach with any of the existing PFQ algorithms.