This paper considers the problem of providing relative service differentiation in IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN by using different Medium Access Control (MAC) parameters for different service classes. We present an analytical model which predicts the saturation throughput of IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function with multiple classes of service. This model allows us to show that relative service differentiation can be achieved by varying the initial contention window alone. In this case, the saturation throughput of a station can be shown to be approximately inversely proportional to the initial contention window size being used by that station. The simulation results validate our analytical model.

To guarantee QoS for multicast transmission, admission control for multicast sessions is expected. Probe-based multicast admission control (PBMAC) scheme is a scalable and simple approach. However, PBMAC suffers from the subsequent request problem which can significantly reduce the maximum number of multicast sessions that a network can admit. In this letter, we describe the subsequent request problem and propose an enhanced PBMAC scheme to solve this problem. The enhanced scheme makes use of complementary probing and remarking which require only minor modification to the original scheme. By using a fluid-based analytical model, we are able to prove that the enhanced scheme can always admit a higher number of multicast sessions. Furthermore, we present validation of the analytical model using packet based simulation.