An Enhanced Traffic Separation Mechanism to Support Real-Time Communication in IEEE 802.11e Networks

In this paper, a new traffic separation mechanism is proposed for IEEE 802.11e networks. Such Traffic Separation Mechanism (TSm) allows the coexistence of CSMA default stations with real-time stations in the same network domain. A station implementing the proposed TSm scheme has the same operating behavior as a default IEEE 802.11e network station, except in what concerns the evaluation of the backoff delay. A station implementing the TSm scheme eventually imposes the transfer of its messages prior to the transfer of any lower priority message.