A Session-Based Management Architecture for QoS Assurance to VoIP Applications on Wireless Access Networks

The increasing popularity of WLANs-due to the use of license-free radio spectrum with low-cost, easily deployable and high-data-rate wireless services- has encouraged service providers to consider deploying them in high density usage areas, such as public hotspots, to provide complementary broadband access to their networks and services. This article proposes a Session Initiation Protocol based QoS management architecture that aims to provide consistent QoS control for multimedia applications (VoIP, VoD, ...) over wireless access networks. In particular, we will present a generic QoS based management architecture for decentralized management of multimedia applications over wireless access networks, such as WLAN. We will apply our architecture to the management of the WLAN in order to assure QoS (throughput and delay) for the delivered multimedia applications according to users´ priorities and providers´ objectives. Performance evaluations are discussed to illustrate the feasibility and the efficiency of the proposed architecture through the implementation of a real-world testbed.