A new access method supporting QoS in IEEE 802.11 network

IEEE 802.11 is becoming a standard of increasing importance for wireless LANs. The task group e is working to extend it in order to enhance the current medium access control (MAC) layer, in order to support multimedia transmission with QoS requirements. This paper suggests a new medium access method called the advanced point coordinator function (A-PCF) which uses a dynamic polling scheme supporting different services. We simulate the A-PCF using the NS-2 simulator. Then we evaluate and compare this method with point coordinator function (PCF), an access method proposed by the IEEE 802.11. The normalized throughput, the average delay and the loss rate are the three QoS metrics that illustrate the performance of the A-PCF strategy.