A Resource-Based Approach To MAC Layer Independent Hierarchical Link-Sharing in Wireless Local Area Networks

The growing deployment of wireless local area networks (WLANs) in corporate environments and the increasing number of wireless Internet service providers create a need for controlled sharing of wireless bandwidth. In this paper a method for using long-term channel-state information in order to control the sharing of wireless bandwidth is studied. The algorithm enables an operator of a WLAN to equalize the revenue/cost for each customer in the network and to control the link-sharing based on a combination of user-centric and operator-centric factors. As an example, we adapt one of the well-know wireline schedulers for hierarchical linksharing, the Hierarchical Fair Service Curve Algorithm (H-FSC), for the wireless environment and demonstrate through simulations that the modified algorithm is able to improve the controlled sharing of the wireless link without requiring modifications to the MAC layer. In addition, we present first measurements of a prototype implemen-