On modeling and measuring quality of experience performance in IEEE 802.11n wireless networks

This paper addresses the problem of characterizing the quality of experience (QoE) of users accessing different types of applications in 802.11n wireless local area network (WLAN) deployment environments. Using the generalized logistic function with fractional powers, an analytically tractable QoE model that can be flexibly applied to different application types (real time and nonreal time) is formulated as a function of several quality of service (QoS) parameters. An 802.11n WLAN testbed is then used to validate the accuracy of the QoE model via experimental QoE measurements. The paper also investigates the impact of different network operational parameters including the number of users supported, percentage of real time traffic streamed and level of co-channel interference on both the QoS and QoE performance. Next, an optimization problem is solved to maximize the overall QoE achievable subject to the QoS constraints of the applications in use. Overall, the developed QoE model can be used as an effective tool for enhancing the Access Point (AP) capacity and the QoE performance by optimally adapting the network operational parameters.