Upstream Bandwidth Estimation

Our proposed approach to estimating the upstream bandwidth requires that the end-host sends data frames to an access point in the unaffiliated state and records the time elapsed between the instant when a frame is scheduled for transmission and the time when the end-host receives an $ACK$ message. It is interesting to note that the IEEE 802.11 standard allows a station in an unassociated state to send data frames to an access point. By sending several such frames and measuring the delays incurred by the frames, an end-host gets an estimate of the expected delay of a data frame. The potential upstream bandwidth can then be estimated using Eq. (4).

The implementation of the upstream bandwidth estimation scheme requires modifications to the wireless driver to allow a station to send frames in the unaffiliated state and is currently being investigated.