QoS Framework for wireless networks

This paper presents a work in progress about a cross-layer approach to support Quality of Service for wireless multimedia applications, building a suitable framework over the top of the heterogeneous wireless MACs. It lets to enhance the existing QoS support provided by standard MAC protocols and it uses the contract model to guarantee QoS, taking into account the applications requests. It negotiates dynamically Application Level Contracts which will be translated seamlessly in Resource Level Contracts for the underlying network services from which it receives the feedback to adjust the scheduling algorithms and policies to provide soft guarantees. The framework comprises QoS Manager, Admission Control, Enhanced Scheduler and Feedback System. The QoS manager component is a middleware able to dynamically manage available resources under different load conditions in a transparent manner to application level.