On Backoff Timer Scheduling for Smart-DCF and Performance Evaluation

In this work, we present a generic backoff-timer scheduling algorithm for the Smart-DCF scheme. In Smart-DCF, the master station schedules the backoff timer value for each client station, and the backoff timer information is sent to the client station via an acknowledgment frame. The proposed backoff-timer scheduling mechanism enables the Smart-DCF access point to provide differentiated services to different classes of wireless stations or traffic. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheduling algorithm is effective. The results also show that the Smart-DCF scheme noticeably outperforms the existing DCF scheme. In addition, the throughput performance of Smart-DCF starts to reach the saturated level when each data burst is longer than 5 frames.