Measurement-Based Achievable Throughput Estimation in IEEE 802.11a WLANs

Knowledge of dynamically changing achievable throughput is important in the design of an adaptive QoS-provisioning system over WLANs. In this letter, we introduce a novel measurement-based throughput estimation scheme and its practical realization for IEEE 802.11a WLAN environment. By utilizing traffic statistics measurements at the wireless AP (access point) in a timely manner, the proposed scheme estimates idle (i.e., remaining) channel time and converts it into available min/max throughput guidelines. Prototype realization in a Linux-based testbed verifies that the proposed scheme can estimate the available throughput with precision.