Real-Time Traffic Support in Large-Scale Mobile Ad hoc Networks

Ad hoc networks have been proposed for a variety of applications where support for real-time multimedia services will be necessary. This requires that the network is able to offer quality of service (QoS) appropriate for the latency and jitter bounds of the real-time application constraints. In this paper, we analyze the primary challenges of realizing QoS in large scale mobile ad hoc networks and propose a QoS framework for real-time traffic support. Specifically, our proposed QoS framework first utilizes a call setup protocol at the IP layer to discover paths for real-time flows, as well as to perform admission control by accurate service quality prediction. We then use a prioritized MAC protocol to provide priority access for flows with real-time constraints to reduce interference from unregulated non-real-time traffic. We foresee the utility of our proposed solution in large-scale ad hoc networks, such as campus or community-wide wireless networks. In these environments, fixed wireless routers may further be leveraged to achieve better service quality when node movement is significant. Through experimental results, we demonstrate the utility and efficiency of our approach.