Estimation of the Capacity of IE 802.11e Networks in Multicell Outdoor Environments

Abstract

The convergence of services as video, voice and data over a common infrastructure achieving a certain Quality of Service (QoS) level lead to the creation of the IEEE 802.11e standard which enhances the original IEEE 802.11 MAC layer by providing a fair medium access treatment according to the application needs. In addition, the deployment of WLANs in public places (hotspots) has been made in a one-cell oriented way and the behavior of parameters such as throughput, delay and loss packet in voice and data traffic over an outdoor environment involving more than one cell has not been analized. These facts lead to the design of a 802.11e multicell outdoor network based on the solutions provided by special techniques commonly used by cellular telephony in order to solve some problems related to outdoor scenarios. Such design is evaluated using the Network Simulator NCTUns 3.0 and finally some conclusions related to the impact of a multiple cell scheme on the capacity of the Access Points (APs) are presented.