A Priority Queuing Model for HCF Controlled Channel Access (HCCA) in Wireless LANs

Recently, there has been a rapid growing interest in new applications requiring quality of service (QoS) guarantees through wireless local area networks (WLAN). These demands have led to the introduction of new 802.11 standard series to enhance access medium supporting QoS for multimedia applications. However, some applications such as variable bit rate (VBR) traffic address some challenges in the hybrid coordination function (HCF) nominated to provide QoS. This paper presents a novel priority queuing model to analyze a medium access in the HCF controlled channel access (HCCA) mode. This model makes use of a MAP (Markovian Arrival Process)/PH (Phase Type)/1 queue with two types of jobs which are suitable to support VBR traffic. Using a MAP for traffic arrival process and PH distribution for service process, the inclusion of vacation period makes our analysis very general and comprehensive to support various types of practical traffic streams. The proposed priority queuing model is very useful to evaluate and enhance the performance of the scheduler and the admission controller in the HCCA mechanism.