Improving Fairness in IEEE 802.11 EDCA Ad Hoc Networks Based on Fuzzy Logic

Wireless ad hoc network is a self-configurable and dynamically distributed network in which stations can move freely. In the ad hoc network, some flows have difficulty in accessing the channel due to contention at both the medium-access control (MAC) and link layers. The IEEE 802.11 protocol is currently the de facto standard for wireless networks. It uses enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) method to access the transmission environment of each type of data flow. The size of the contention window (CW) in EDCA is related to the probability of accessing the channel of each flow. In our approach, useful information is obtained from the physical, MAC, and link layers. A fuzzy logic system is then used to adjust the size of CW to rely on such value, thereby improving the fairness index of data flows (voice, video, best effort) in IEEE 802.11 EDCA. The simulation results show that the proposed method can improve the throughput and fairness index of data flows.