QoS Support in Multi-hop Ad-hoc Networks

The chapter contains an overview of existing QoS solutions for multi-hop ad-hoc networks. Firstly, an introduction and short motivation are presented. The authors present an analysis of the QoS aspects of the physical layer because the wireless communication channel is constantly changing and inherently prone to errors. QoS provisioning at the data link layer is studied next. The authors focus on protocols which enable traffic differentiation, solve the hidden node problem and provide fair medium access. The chapter also deals with QoS issues at the network layer, where the authors mostly discuss QoS routing protocols. Additionally, cross-layer solutions for QoS support in multi-hop ad-hoc networks are analyzed. Finally, the expected direction of future work and a brief summary are presented.