Toward the use of local monitoring and network-wide correction to achieve QoS guarantees in mobile ad hoc networks

Abstract

This paper presents the exploration of novel mechanisms toward providing quality of service (QoS) guarantees in mobile ad hoc networks. We study mechanisms that provide differentiated services to packets of varying priority traffic flows. These mechanisms do not require any central coordination and do not depend on any specific protocols at the physical, MAC, or network layers. Nodes independently monitor the rates of the highest priority flows and signal corrective mechanisms when these rates fall outside of specified local bounds. Triggering conditions for network-wide corrective mechanisms are designed to trade-off rapid reactive response to local QoS violations with control packet overhead. A range of corrective mechanisms are explored that attempt to maintain reactive response while improving total network utilization, including resources consumed by lower priority traffic. We provide simulation results that demonstrate the effectiveness of monitoring, reactive triggering, and basic and advanced corrective mechanisms. We discuss the extension of these novel mechanisms to a complete QoS solution for mobile ad hoc networks.