FairNet Features

The Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) provides timing fairness for each client to access a medium with equal opportunity. However, it cannot guarantee the per-station data traffic fairness among all wireless clients. The FairNet feature is implemented on top of the existing 802.11 DCF to guarantee fair bandwidth among wireless clients regardless of the number and direction of flows.

The traffic control feature decides if packets are queued or dropped (for example, if the queue has reached some length limit, or if the traffic exceeds some rate limit). It can also decide in which order packets are sent (for example, to give priority to certain ones), and it can delay the sending of packets (for example, to limit the rate of outbound traffic). After traffic control has released a packet for sending, the device driver picks it up and emits it on the network.