Modeling Path Capacity in Multi-hop IEEE 802.11 Networks for QoS Services

We propose an analytical model for multi-hop IEEE 802.11 networks to calculate how much bandwidth can be utilized along a path without violating the QoS requirements of existing rate-controlled traffic flows. A notion, "free channel time", which is the time allowed for a wireless link to transmit data, is introduced to analyze the path capacity. To achieve the goal, the proposed model effectively characterizes the unsaturated traffic condition. It could also depict the interaction between the newly injected traffic and the hidden traffic that could have influence upon the new traffic. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed analytical model can accurately predict the path capacity under various network conditions without breaking QoS demands of all existing traffic