Abstract: An admission control (AC) algorithm based on the non-cooperative game theory is presented for IEEE 802.11 WLANs. By setting the user QoS satisfaction ratio (UQS) function, the AC procedure between the wireless users and the Access Points (APs) is modeled as a non-cooperative game where the users and the ACs want to maximize their UQS function based utilities. According to the Nash equilibria of the game, an adaptive AC alogrithm called the G-AC is then developed. Simulation results indicate that the QoS of the ongoing user flows is guaranteed by the G-AC algorithm. And since the G-AC algorithm can adjust the admission strategy in accord with the current system load, it has notable advantages over other AC algorithms in both bandwidth utilization and network revenue.

Key words: IEEE 802.11e, admission control, Quality of Service, game theory, nash equilibrium