An efficient resource allocation scheme for time-sensitive traffic in wireless networks

Wireless bandwidth is a very precious resource and must be used efficiently. The efficiency is normally measured in terms of utilization or throughput. However, a high throughput alone is no longer sufficient when there is time-sensitive traffic to support in a wireless network because this traffic has delay requirement. Time-sensitive packets must be delivered before a certain delay upper bound or risk being dropped. Thus, packet drop ratio should be used to measure the ability in meeting the delay requirement. This paper proposes a novel resource allocation scheme called ERATS that capitalizes on the time-varying nature of a wireless channel to achieve a higher throughput at the same time of providing an accurate proportionally differentiated packet drop ratio. Simulation results using OPNET have indicated the efficiency of ERATS.