A forcing collision resolution approach able to prioritize traffic in CSMA-based networks

In this paper, a Traffic Separation mechanism (TSm) is proposed for CSMA-based networks. The TSm mechanism is intended to be used as an underlying traffic separation mechanism able to prioritize traffic in CSMA-based networks. It allows the coexistence of standard CSMA (non-modified) stations with TSm (modified) stations in the same network domain. When a station implementing the TSm mechanism has a high-priority message to transfer, it will impose its transfer prior to any other message from standard CSMA stations. This behavior guarantees the highest transmitting probability to the TSmenabled station in an open communication environment. Therefore, the TSm mechanism can be used as a foundation to build real-time communication systems in CSMA-based networks. The behavior of the TSm mechanism was assessed by simulation in the case of a relevant CSMA-based network (IEEE 802.11). The simulation analysis shows that the TSm mechanism guarantees values for both the throughput and the average access delay that significantly improves the results obtained for standard IEEE 802.11 stations.