IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NETWORK AND SERVICE MANAGEMENT, VOL. 9, NO.

4, DECEMBER 2012

473

Access Point Buffer Management for

Power Saving in IEEE 802.11 WLANs
Yi-hua Zhu, Senior Member, IEEE, Han-cheng Lu, and Victor C. M. Leung, Fellow, IEEE

AbstractIt is crucial to save power and prolong the runtime of mobile stations (STAs) in wireless local area networks
(WLANs). In an infrastructure WLAN, a STA cannot be connected until it is associated with an access point (AP), which
is responsible for buffering frames for all the associated STAs
operating in the power saving mode. Hence, efficient memory
utilization is critical for an AP to accommodate as many powersaving STAs as possible. The basic power management (BPM)
scheme introduced in the IEEE 802.11 standard achieves power
saving by allowing STAs not engaging in data delivery to operate
in doze mode, but it does not consider the efficient use of
the memory in the AP. To tradeoff power consumption for
memory usage, we present an AP-priority timer-based power
management (APP-TPM) scheme and develop a novel model for
stochastic analysis of the proposed scheme. Based on this model,
the probability distributions of the numbers of frames buffered
at the AP and the average numbers of frames buffered at the
AP are obtained. Moreover, a power-aware buffer management
scheme (PBMS), which is based on the derived statistics, is
proposed to accommodate as many STAs as possible given a
fixed amount of memory in the AP while maintaining low power
consumption. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme
performs better than BPM in terms of memory usage in the AP.
Index TermsPower management, WLAN, IEEE 802.11,
power saving.

I. I NTRODUCTION

IRELESS local area networks (WLANs) based on the

IEEE 802.11 standard [1] are becoming increasingly
popular since devices in these networks can communicate over
shared radio channels in license-free frequency bands using
the Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) for medium
access control (MAC). In infrastructure WLANs, access points
(APs) are used to relay data packets between stations (STAs)
and the global Internet. Saving power is critical for batteryoperated portable STAs to have a long runtime. The basic
power management (BPM) scheme in the IEEE 802.11 standard allows a STA in an infrastructure WLAN to operate in
power saving mode, whereby the STA can go into doze mode

Manuscript received on August 27, 2011; revised on March 20 and June

3, 2012. The Associate Editor coordinating the review of this paper and
approving it for publication was P. Bellavista.
This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61070190; in part by the Zhejiang Provincial
Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Z1100455; and in part by
the Zhejiang Provincial Key Science & Technology Project of China under
grant No. 2009C14033.
Y.-H. Zhu and H.-C. Lu are with the School of Computer Science and
Technology, Zhejiang University of Technology, Zhejiang 310023, P. R. China
(e-mail: yhzhu@ieee.org, b04031022@126.com).
V. C. M. Leung is with the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
V6T 1Z4 (e-mail: vleung@ece.ubc.ca).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TNSM.2012.062512.110188

and power down its radio transceiver when it is not engaged

in data delivery. A STA operating in power saving mode is
referred as a power-saving STA in this paper. Thus, a powersaving STA can operate in one of four modes: transmission,
reception, idle, and doze, in which the doze mode has the least
power consumption. Usually, power management algorithms
aim to achieve power savings by maximizing the doze periods
of STAs.
Before connecting to an infrastructure WLAN, a STA is
required to associate with an AP of the WLAN by sending
an Association Request (AR). In the case of a power-saving
STA, the AR contains a Listen Interval (LI) parameter used
to indicate how often the STA wakes up to listen to beacon
frames from the AP [1]. The AP assigns an Association
ID (AID) to the STA if the AR is accepted by the AP.
Under BPM, when a power-saving STA has no frame to
transmit/receive, it switches to doze mode for the duration
equal to its LI. Meanwhile, the AP buffers incoming data
frames for the dozing STAs and periodically broadcasts a
beacon that contains a Traffic Indication Map (TIM) including
AIDs of the dozing STAs to announce which STAs have
pending data frames in the AP. When a power-saving STA
wakes up, it listens to the beacon to see if the bit corresponding
to its AID is set in the TIM, in which case the STA sends the
AP a Power-Saving-poll (PS-poll) frame to retrieve the data
frame; otherwise, it dozes again for another LI period.
As far as power saving is concerned, a longer LI is preferred
to allow the power-saving STA to take a longer doze period,
but this causes usage of more memory in the AP to buffer
frames destined to the STA, in addition to longer packet delays. It is required that an AP should hold the buffered frames
for at least one LI before discarding them, or if the AP is short
of memory, the pending frames are dropped according to an
aging function [1]. In fact, any power management scheme
is not expected to gain a high throughput if it does not take
available buffer size into account, because the buffered frames
in the AP will be discarded if the AP is short of memory,
which produces lots of retransmissions. Hence, the AP needs a
buffer management scheme to allocate an appropriate amount
of memory to buffer the frames for a dozing STA, when an
AR including an LI parameter is initially received from the
power-saving STA.
Although memory is cheap nowadays, the memory size of
an AP is fixed and limited when the AP is put in use. It may
not be practical to put the WLAN temporary out of service
in order to upgrade the AP with more memory. Currently, the
memory size in an AP is typically tens of megabytes. For
instance, the Netgear WG103 AP, which is currently available

c 2012 IEEE
1932-4537/12/$31.00 

474

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NETWORK AND SERVICE MANAGEMENT, VOL. 9, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2012

for sale, has 32MB SDRAM. Usually, an AP inside a WLAN

is associated with multiple STAs. Consequently, if there are
multiple power-saving STAs in the network, the AP is only
able to allocate a small amount of memory to buffer frames
for each power-saving STA. For example, with the device
mentioned above only about 3MB memory on average can
be allocated for a STA if there are 10 power-saving STAs in
the WLAN. Such a tight limitation of the memory size makes
it almost impossible for a STA to enter sleep mode via BPM
without dropping some packets, which is undesirable when
it is involved in multimedia communications with quality of
service (QoS) constraints. The reason is that, when BPM is
applied with an inappropriate LI, the incoming frames may be
discarded at the AP due to buffer overflow, which degrades
QoS. To avoid this condition, the only choice is to disable
BPM and keep the STA awake, which may be unsatisfactory
from an energy-saving point of view. Our AP-Priority Timerbased Power Management (APP-TPM) proposed in this paper
can remedy the shortcoming of BPM, by enabling a STAs
sleep time and idle time to be controlled so that frames
destined to it are not discarded by the AP due to buffer
overflow.
APP-TPM is based on our previous timer-based power
management (TPM) [2]. TPM can considerably reduce the
number of buffered frames by letting STAs stay in the idle
state for a period longer than the idle period of STAs under
BPM. Hence, with TPM, it is possible for STAs to enter
sleep mode to save power even when the AP has only a
small amount of available memory. Two timers called the idle
timer and the doze timer are incorporated in TPM. Like BPM,
the doze timer TD is set to equal to LI each time the STA
enters the doze mode, and the STA wakes up when the doze
timer times out. Unlike BPM, which allows an idle STA to
switch to doze mode at the beginning of the next beacon,
TPM extends the idle period of BPM by multiple Beacon
Intervals (BIs) such that the idle STA is not allowed to enter
doze mode until a preset amount of time TI , specified by the
idle timer, has elapsed. In TPM, the idle timer is started as
soon as the STA becomes idle. The idle timer is reset if the
STA transmits/receives a frame before the timer times out. The
STA switches to doze mode when the timer times out while
the STA continues to stay idle. The initial values of the two
timers, i.e., TI and TD , are negotiated between the STA and
the AP when the STA is associated with the AP.
Both TPM and BPM set its doze period to LI as specified
by the power-saving STA. The main difference in the activities
of them is shown in Fig. 1, in which the vertical bars represent
the beacons, and we assume that the STA becomes active at
time A and goes idle at time B. Under BPM, the STA enters
sleep mode at time C, i.e., the beginning of the next beacon.
Under TPM, however, its sleep is postponed to time E when
the idle timer with value TI times out, where TI is set to two
more BIs than the idle period of BPM.
At the cost of slightly higher power consumption than BPM,
the number of frames buffered at the AP and the STA under
TPM could be considerably reduced by increasing TI and/or
decreasing TD [2]. These adjustments supported by TPM
make it possible for an AP with limited available memory to
fully buffer the frames destined to power-saving STAs during

Fig. 1.

TPM vs. BPM.

their sleeping periods, so that it is possible to enable STAs

to operate in the power-saving mode without sacrificing QoS
support.
In fact, the IEEE 802.11 standard does not specify how
the AP determines whether an AR should be granted, and
this decision process is implementation-specific. One common
consideration for granting AR is the amount of memory
required for frame buffering, a rough estimate of which based
on the LI in the AR frame is possible [3]. Hence, deriving the
Number of Buffered Frames at the AP (NBF-AP) is significant
for an AP to make an appropriate decision on granting ARs.
Although the statistics of the sum of NBF-AP and the number
of frames buffered at the STA can be obtained from the
model of TPM presented in [2], it has the drawback that the
statistics of NBF-AP cannot be separated from those of the
sum. Therefore the results in [2] cannot be applied towards
the design of a buffer management scheme that is capable
of predicting the number of frames buffered at the AP for
each STA and optimizing each STAs power consumption.
This drawback is overcome by the model presented in this
paper. In addition, the average NBF-AP (ANBF-AP), i.e., the
expected NBF-AP, is derived and used in the proposed buffer
management scheme.
Since the available memory in the AP determines how
many power-saving STAs are allowed to be associated with
the AP, the overall power saving of the system depends not
only on the power management scheme, but also on the buffer
management scheme. To the best of our knowledge, none
of the power management schemes presented for the 802.11
infrastructure WLAN in the literature have considered buffer
management in the AP. This paper fills the gap.
The main contributions of the paper are as follows:
1)We propose a power-aware buffer management scheme
(PBMS) for the AP, which allocates buffers based on the
statistics of numbers of frames queued in the AP for sleeping
STAs, in order to accommodate as many STAs as possible
given a fixed amount of memory in the AP, while minimizing
the total of all the STAs.
2)We propose an AP-priority TPM (APP-TPM) scheme
and present a novel model for analyzing the statistics of the
proposed scheme, which takes into account of separate queues
for incoming frames and outgoing frames.
3)We derive the statistics including the averages and the
probability distributions of NBF-AP.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. The

ZHU et al.: ACCESS POINT BUFFER MANAGEMENT FOR POWER SAVING IN IEEE 802.11 WLANS

TABLE I
ACRONYMS AND NOTATIONS

Acronyms and notations

Definition

AP

Access Point

AR

Association Request

AID

Association ID

APP-TPM

AP-Priority Timer-based Power Management

LI

Listen Interval

BI

Beacon Interval

BPM

Basic Power Management

NBF-AP

The Number of Buffered Frames at the AP

ANBF-AP

The average NBF-AP

PS-poll

Power-Saving-poll

PFD

Percentage of Frame Discarded

TPM

Timer-based Power Management

TIM

Traffic Indication Map

TI

The initial value of the idle timer

TD

The initial value of the doze timer

MIT

Mandatory Idle Time

PIT

Prolonged Idle Time

Memory size constraint of the AP

PBMS is proposed in Section II and the APP-TPM scheme

applicable to IEEE 802.11 infrastructure WLANs is presented
in Section III. Based on stochastic analysis, we model APPTPM and derive statistics in Section IV. Simulation results for
validating the derived statistics and the performance analysis
of PBMS are presented in Section V. Related work is surveyed
in Section VI. Section VII concludes the paper. In addition,
some acronyms and notations are listed in Table I.

II. P OWER -AWARE B UFFER M ANAGEMENT S CHEME

As mentioned in the previous section, if the AP grants a

power-saving STA in response to its AR, it has to buffer
all the frames destined to the STA for a duration of at least
one LI when the STA goes to sleep. One of the key factors
that impact the APs decision on whether to accept an AR
is its available memory. The proposed PBMS helps the AP
make decisions and aims to minimize STAs average power
consumption by adjusting TI so that the available memory in
the AP is sufficient to hold all the frames destined to the STAs
operating in doze mode for at least one LI.
Assume there are N active STAs and the memory size constraint of the AP is . Suppose the k-th STA, k = 1, 2, ..., n,
has a pending AR in the AP, and the remaining N n STAs
have previously granted ARs. For k = 1, 2, ..., n, let E (k) ,
(k)
(k)
(k)
LAP , TI and TD represent the average power consumption,
ANBF-AP, TI and TD , respectively, of the k-th STA, and
x(k) is an indicator used to represent whether the AR of the
k-th STA is granted (x(k) = 1) or not (x(k) = 0). Noting
that maximizing 1/E (k) is equivalent to minimizing E (k) , we
propose the following optimization problem for our PBMS,

475

which will be referred to as PBMS-OPT in the sequel.

(1)

(2)

(n)

Max (x(1) , x(2) , ..., x(n) ; TI , TI , ..., TI )

n

k=1

(1)

w.r.t. x
s.t.

n

k=1

(2)

,x

x(k)

1
E (k)

(1)
(2)
(n)
; TI , TI , ..., TI
N

(i)

LAP ;
i=n+1

(n)

, ..., x
(k)

x(k) LAP

x(k) {0, 1}, k = 1, 2, ..., n

(1)
Especially, when n = 1, i.e., there is only one pending AR
at the AP, we set x(n) = 1 in (1).
to increase the objective function () =
Clearly,
n
(k)
[E (k) ]1 , we prefer more x(k) s (k = 1, 2, ..., n) to
k=1 x
be set to 1, i.e., more ARs are granted. But this also increases
the ANBF-AP. As a result, only some x(k) s are allowed to be
set to 1 if the available memory at the AP is not enough (see
the first line of the constraints in (1)). It should be pointed
(k)
(k)
out that, for a given k, E (k) , LAP depend on both TI and
(k)
TD ( see (21)-(24) and (26) in Section IV). Consequently, it
is feasible to choose and set as many x(k) s to 1 as possible
(k)
by adjusting TI (k = 1, 2, ..., n). This is the main objective
of the proposed PBMS-OPT given in (1).
PBMS-OPT is evoked each time the AP makes the decision
to accept some AR(s). When the optimal solution of PBMSOPT is found, for each k in {1, 2, ..., n}, if x(k) = 1, then the
AR from the k-th STA is granted; otherwise x(k) = 0 and it
(k)
is rejected. In addition, the optimal TI s for the granted ARs
are carried in the last field, called Vendor Specific, in the
association response frame [1] notifying the k-th STA of the
(k)
acceptance (TI is used to set the value of the idle timer in
the k-th STA).
The PBMS is based on the improved TPM, i.e., APP-TPM,
which is presented in the next section. Additionally, in Section
IV we derive some important statistics of APP-TPM, including
(k)
those crucial for PBMS-OPT, such as E (k) and LAP .
III. AP-P RIORITY T IMER -BASED P OWER M ANAGEMENT
Rather than only considering the total number of frames
in both the incoming and outgoing queues as in [2], we
consider a more realistic model that represents the two queues
individually, referred as queue-AP and queue-STA, to hold the
incoming frames at the AP (to the STA) and the outgoing
frames at the STA (to the AP), respectively. That is, when
the STA operates in doze mode, the frames destined to it are
placed in queue-AP while those generated by the STA are
placed in queue-STA. To alleviate the possibility of shortage
of buffers in the AP, transmissions of the frames in queue-AP
are given priority over those in queue-STA, i.e., the frames at
the AP are transmitted prior to those at the STA. This can be
realized by having the STA delay transmitting the frames in
queue-STA until it receives the last frame buffered in the AP,
which is indicated by the More Data field in the frame header
being set to 0 [1]. Accordingly, our scheme is referred to as
AP-Priority TPM, which consists of two components: APPTPM-AP, which runs in the AP, and APP-TPM-STA, which
runs in the STA and includes an idle timer and a doze timer.

476

Fig. 2.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NETWORK AND SERVICE MANAGEMENT, VOL. 9, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2012

Flowchart of APP-TPM-AP.

The main logic of APP-TPM-AP is as follows. When the AP

begins to handle the pending ARs, for each k in {1, 2, ..., n}, it
(k)
sets TD to the LI received from the AR of the k-th STA (the
two-octet field Listen interval in the frame header contains
(k)
the LI parameter [1]), and then, it finds the optimal TI (k =
1, 2, ..., n) via PBMS-OPT shown in (1).
After the AP receives from a STA a frame in which the
Power management bit field is set to 1, which indicates that
the STA will enter the doze mode after the completion of the
current frame exchange [1], the AP starts buffering the frames
destined to the STA according to the logic shown in Fig. 2.
The main logic of APP-TPM-STA is as follows. After a
STA sends an AR to the AP, the STA waits for the AP to
reply with the decision to accept the AR or not. If accepted,
the STA gets TI from the AP and sets TD to the LI parameter
contained in the AR frame previously sent to the AP. The STA
sets the value of the idle timer to TI as soon as it becomes idle.
It switches to the active state (i.e., receives/transmits frames)
immediately if a frame arrives before the idle timer timeouts.
If the STA remains idle till the idle timer expires, it switches
to the doze mode after sending the AP a frame with Power
management bit field set to 1. The value of the doze timer
is set to TD as soon as the STA enters doze mode and it
wakes up when the doze timer expires to listen for the next
TIM. If no frame is buffered at the AP and the STA, the
STA sleeps for another period of TD ; otherwise, it switches
to active mode to receive the incoming frames first and then
transmit the outgoing frames. Fig. 3 shows the flowchart of
APP-TPM-STA.

Fig. 3.

Flowchart of APP-TPM-STA.

At any time, each STA can operate in transmission, reception, idle, or doze mode. As in [2], we combine transmission
and reception into one state, called active state.
In APP-TPM, the doze period of the k-th STA is deter(k)
ministic, i.e., it is a constant TD set to LI that is equal to a
multiple of BIs [1]. In order to reduce the difficulty of deriving
the statistics by stochastic analysis, we first consider the doze
period as a random variable (assumption (i) below) and then
(k)
let the variable take a deterministic value TD to derive the
statistics for the APP-TPM.
A. Assumptions

IV. K EY S TATISTICS OF PBMS

In general, the doze period of the STA, the time of an

incoming frame arriving at the STA, the time of an outgoing
frame generated at the STA, and the time for the STA to
transmit/receive a frame are all random variables. Naturally,
the best way of modeling APP-TPM is to let all the related
random variables be generally distributed. Unfortunately, it
does not seem feasible to derive the system statistics based
on general distributions. Considering that the Poisson process
has been used for modeling the incoming and outgoing traffic
[2][4], and the service time distribution of MAC queues in
802.11 ad-hoc networks has been modeled by an exponential distribution [5], for analytical tractability, we make the
following assumptions.
(i) The doze period of the k-th STA is a random vari(k)
(k)
able D with expectation E[D ] = 1/ (k) , 2nd moment
(k) 2
E[(D ) ] (k) , probability density function (pdf) g (k) (x),
and cumulative distribution function (CDF) G(k) (x) [2]. The
(k)
(k)
hazard rate function [6] of D is (k) (x) g (k)(x) , where

As in Section II, we let N be the number of STAs accessing

the AP in the WLAN. In this section, by extending the model
used in [2], we derive some statistics of APP-TPM for the
(k)
k-th STA, including E (k) and LAP (k = 1, 2, ..., N ), which
are critical for PBMS-OPT given in (1).

(x) 1 G(k) (x).

(ii) Incoming frames arriving at the AP and destined to the
(k)
k-th STA form a Poisson process with rate 1 and outgoing
frames generated at the k-th STA form a Poisson process with
(k)
rate 2 [2][4].
G

(k)

(x)

ZHU et al.: ACCESS POINT BUFFER MANAGEMENT FOR POWER SAVING IN IEEE 802.11 WLANS

(iii) The time for the k-th STA to transmit/receive a

frame, including the time to compete for channel access, is
an exponentially distributed random variable (k) [5] with
parameter (k) , i.e., the pdf, CDF, and hazard rate function
(k)
(k)
of (k) are f (k) (x) = (k) e x , F (k) (x) = 1 e x
and (k) (x) = (k) , respectively.
We assume all the above random variables are mutually
independent. In addition, we introduce the following notations:
(k)

(k)

(k)

(k)

1,2 1 + 2 , (k) 1,2 /(k)

(2)

B. State Transitions of APP-TPM

The conditional probability that the STA has dozed for a
time period of x and then terminates doze mode within a very
small time interval t is given by the following equation.
(k)

(k)

Pr{D < x + t|D x} =

(k)

= g (k) (ux )t/G

event that the STA is in state Di,j with ADT x at time t,

which satisfies [2]:
pDi,j (t, x)dx = Pr{(t) = Di,j , x < Y (t) x + dx}

(x), ux [x, x + t].

(k)

We have limt0 g (k) (ux )/G (x) = (k) (x) as

limt0 ux = x. Hence, (k) (x) is the probability density
of the event that the STA terminates doze mode after it has
dozed for a time period of x, which yields the result: the
probability that the STA terminates dozing within t after it
has dozed for a time period of x is (k) (x)t.
We use notation Ai,j to represent the joint event that the
STA is in active state, and there are i outgoing frames in
queue-STA waiting for transmission to the AP and j incoming
frames in queue-AP waiting for transmission to the STA. In
addition, Di,j is used to represent the event that the STA is in
doze state and there are i outgoing frames and j incoming
frames buffered in queue-STA and queue-AP, respectively,
where i, j = 0, 1, .... Moreover, we use letter I for the idle
state. All the possible transitions among the states Ai,j , Di,j
(i, j = 0, 1, 2, ...) and state I are shown in Fig. 4, where
circles, squares, and triangles represent the active states, doze
states, and idle states, respectively. In addition, state transitions
are indicated by arrows connecting the respective states, and
each arrow is labeled with the corresponding hazard rate
function. For the sake of conciseness, in the figure, we omit
(k)
superscript (k). That is, 1 , 2 , (x), and (x) stand for 1 ,
(k)
(k)
(k)
2 , (x), and (x), respectively.

t
(k)

(k)

(k)

Besides, we use PI , PA , and PD to represent the probability that the k-th STA is in the idle state, active state,
(k)
(k)
= PI , PA =
and doze state, respectively. Thus, PI
 


(k)

i=0
j=0 qAi,j and PD =
i=0
j=0 PDi,j . Further, we
introduce z-transforms:


Qi (z)
qAi,j z j (i = 0, 1, ...; 0 < z < 1) ;

(k)

(k)

(3)

where i, j = 0, 1, .... Define PDi,j (t) Pr{(t) = Di,j },

qAi,j (t) Pr{(t) = Ai,j } and PI (t) Pr{(t) = I}.

From (3), we have PDi,j (t) = 0 pDi,j (t, x)dx. Let PDi,j
lim PDi,j (t), qAi,j lim qAi,j (t), and PI lim PI (t).

j=0

Pr{x D < x + t}
Pr{D x}

477

K(y, z)

y i Qi (z)(0 < y, z < 1).

i=0

Let I be the idle time interval from the instant when the
STA becomes idle to the instant when an incoming frame
arrives at the AP or an outgoing frame is generated at the STA.
Thus, from assumption (iii), I is exponentially distributed
(k)
(k)
(k)
with rate 1,2 [6], i.e., the pdf and CDF of I are 1,2 e1,2 x
(k)

and Pr{I < x} = 1 e1,2 x , respectively. Thus, we have

(k)

(k)

(k)

P r{I +t TI |I < TI } =

(k)

(k)

1,2 e1,2 TI t
(k)

(k)

1 e1,2 TI

+o(t)

(4)
where o(t) is an infinitesimal satisfying lim o(t)/t =
t0
0.
Considering the state transitions in Fig. 4, we obtain the
following set of equations (Refer to Appendix I for the detailed
derivations).
PI (t) =

(k)

1,2
1e

(k)

(k)

1,2 TI

PI (t) + qA0,0 (t)(k)

(5)

(k)


qA
(t) = qA0,0 (t)((k) + 1,2 ) + (k) qA0,1 (t)
0,0

(k)
pD0,1 (t, x) (k) (x)dx
+ qA1,0 (t) +
0

(k)
+
pD1,0 (t, x) (k) (x)dx + 1,2 PI (t)

(6)

C. Model of APP-TPM
Clearly, (k) , defined in assumption (iii), is the rate of
transmitting/receiving frames between the AP and the STA,
i.e., the average number of frames transmitted/received per
unit time. From assumption (ii), the combined rate of incoming
(k)
and outgoing frames arriving at the AP and the STA is 1,2 .
(k)
Hence, we assume 1,2 < (k) , i.e., (k) < 1 to prevent
the number of frames to be transmitted from growing without
bound.
Let (t) be the state of the STA at time t, and Y (t) be the
accumulated doze time (ADT) at time t, which is the time
period from the instant when the STA starts dozing to time
t. Use pDi,j (t, x) to represent the probability density of the

(k)


(t) = qA0,j (t)((k) + 1,2 ) + (k) qA0,j+1 (t)
qA
0,j

(k)
pD0,j+1 (t, x) (k) (x)dx,
+ 1 qA0,j1 (t) +

j = 1, 2, ...

(7)

(k)

(k)


qA
(t) = qAi,0 (t)((k) + 1,2 ) + 2 qAi1,0 (t)
i,0

+ (k) qAi+1,0 (t) + (k) qAi,1 (t)


+
pDi+1,0 (t, x) (k) (x)dx
0
+
pDi,1 (t, x) (k) (x)dx, i = 1, 2, ...
0

(8)

478

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NETWORK AND SERVICE MANAGEMENT, VOL. 9, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2012

Fig. 4.

State transition diagram.

(k)

(k)


qA
(t) = qAi,j (t)((k) + 1,2 ) + 2 qAi1,j (t)
i,j

(k)
+ qAi,j+1 (t) +
pDi,j+1 (t, x) (k) (x)dx,

i, j = 1, 2, ...

(9)

(k)

(k)

pD0,j (t, x) +
pD (t, x)
t
x 0,j
(k)
(k)
= [1,2 + (k) (x)]pD0,j (t, x) + 1 pD0,j1 (t, x),

(k)

1,2 e1,2 TI

pD0,0 (t, 0) = PI (t)

(k) (k)
1 e1,2 TI

+
pD0,0 (t, x) (k) (x)dx

(12)

(13)

t > 0, x > 0, j = 1, 2, ...

(10)

pD (t, x) +
pD (t, x)
t i,0
x i,0
(k)
(k)
= [1,2 + (k) (x)]pDi,0 (t, x) + 2 pDi1,0 (t, x),

pD0,j (t, 0) = 0, j = 1, 2, ...

pD0,0 (t, x) +
pD (t, x)
t
x 0,0
(k)
= [1,2 + (k) (x)]pD0,0 (t, x), t > 0, x > 0

(11)

t > 0, x > 0, i = 1, 2, ...

(14)

ZHU et al.: ACCESS POINT BUFFER MANAGEMENT FOR POWER SAVING IN IEEE 802.11 WLANS

pDi,j (t, x) +
pD (t, x)
t
x i,j
(k)
(k)
= [1,2 + (k) (x)]pDi,j (t, x) + 1 pDi,j1 (t, x)
+

(k)
2 pDi1,j (t, x),

(k)

(15)

[1 z0 + z0 e

t > 0, x > 0, i = 1, 2, ..., j = 1, 2, ...

(16)

D. Statistics of APP-TPM
From (4)-(16), we obtain the following equations (Refer to
Appendix II for the detailed derivations).

(k)

yzy
1
]
[1
(k) (k)
1,2 TI
y zy
z0 (1 e
)

(k)

(k)

2 y(zy )2 (z y)
zy [(1 + (k) )z 1]
Q
(z
)
+
Q0 (z)
0
y
z zy
(k) (y zy )(z zy )
(k)

(k)

(k) e1,2 TI

(k)

(k)

zy ye(1,2 1 z0 )TD
+ PI
{
(k) (k)
(k) (k)
z0 (y zy )
[1 e1,2 TI ][1 e1,2 TD ]
(k)

(k)

(k)

(1,2 1 zy )TD

zy (y z)e
(z zy )(y zy )
(k) (k)
1,2 TD

zy e

(k)

(k)

(k)

(1,2 1 z)TD

z zy

z0

1
(k)

21

(k)

(k)
+1,2

(k)

(k)

(k)

(k)

(1 e1,2 TI )(1 e1,2 TD )

(23)

}.

(k)

(k)

(k)

E (k) = PI EI + PA EA + PD ED

(24)

where EA , EI , and ED are the power consumption of the STA

when it stays in the active, idle, and doze state, respectively.
Further, we have the following results.
Under APP-TPM, when the WLAN is in steady state, the
probability that there are j incoming frames destined to the
k-th STA and buffered at the AP during the doze period of
the STA is


(k)
P AP (j) =
PDi,j
i=0

(k) (k)
(k) (k) j
(1 TD )s
(k) (k)
PI 1,2 e1,2 TI [1 e1 TD
]
s=0
s!
(k) (k)
(k) (k)
(k)
1,2 TI
1,2 TD
1 (1 e
)(1 e
)
(k)

(k)

ANBF-AP during the doze period of the k-th STA is

(k)

LAP =

(k)

jP AP (j)

j=1

}
(17)

where

(k)

(25)

zy (z y)e
zy ye
+
z0 (y zy )
(y zy )(z zy )
zy e

(k)

{(1 z0 ) + e1,2 TI
(k)
2 z0
(k)
(k)
(k)
(k) (k)
(1,2 1 z0 )TD
2 TD

z zy

(k)
(k)
(k)
(k)
(1,2 1 zy 2 y)TD

(k)
(k)
(k)
(k)
(1,2 1 z2 y)TD

(k)

1,2

Thus, the average power consumption of the k-th STA is as

follows:

We assume that the STA is in idle at time t = 0, i.e.,

K(y, z) = PI

(k)

PA = K(1, 1) = PI

PI (0) = 1; pDi,j (0, x) = 0, i, j = 0, 1, ...

479


(k)
(k)
((k) + 1,2 )2 41 (k) ) (18)

(k)
PI

(k)

(k)

(k)

(k)

(26)

(k)

1,2 e1,2 TI 1 (TD )2

(k)

(k)

(k)

(k)

2(1 e1,2 TI )(1 e1,2 TD )

V. PBMS AND P ERFORMANCE E VALUATIONS

With BPM, when a STA finishes transmitting/receiving its

frames,
the STA is required to stay in the idle state till the

zy
(19) next beacon comes [1]. We refer to the time period from the
(k)
(k)
(k) + 1,2 2 y
instant when the STA becomes idle to the instant when the
next beacon arrives as the mandatory idle time (MIT). As
(k) (k)
(k)
(k)
(k)
(k)
Q0 (z) = PI 1,2 {(z0 z)[1 e1,2 TD + e1,2 (TI +TD ) ] mentioned in Section I, the main difference between BPM and
(k) (k)
(k)
(k)
(k)
(k)
(k)
(k)
APP-TPM is that, when a STA becomes idle, BPM allows the
+ e1,2 TI [ze(1,2 1 z0 )TD z0 e(1,2 1 z)TD ]}
STA to operate in doze mode after MIT expires whereas APP(k) (k)
(k) (k)
TPM requires the STA to stay in the idle state for a period
/{z0 (1 e1,2 TI )(1 e1,2 TD )
of TI , which is equal to MIT plus a period of time called the
(k) 2
(k)
(k)
(k)
[1 z ( + 1,2 )z + ]}
prolonged idle time (PIT) that is equal to a multiple of BIs.
(20)
Obviously, APP-TPM is reduced to BPM if PIT is set to 0.
and
As MIT is a random variable uniformly distributed in [0, BI],
(k)
the average MIT is 0.5 BI. Thus, TI = (0.5 + m)BI where
(k)
(k) (k)
T
1,2 (1 z0 )
1,2 e 1,2 I
(k)
m
is a positive integer [2]. We fix BI=0.1 s [1]. Additionally,
PI = {1 +
+
(k) (k)
(k) (k)
(k)
(k)
2 z0
(1 e1,2 TI )(1 e1,2 TD ) for the k-th STA, we introduce the notation R(k) (k)
1 /2 .
(k)
(k)
(k)
(k)
(k)
(k)
the STA is heavier than
1 z0 + 2 z0 TD + z0 e2 TD e(1,2 1 z0 )TD 1 Thus, download (or upload) traffic of(k)
(k)
}

upload
(or
download)
traffic
when
R
(k)
1 (or R 1).
2 z0
In the IEEE 802.11 standard, a two-octet field in the AR
(21)
frame is used for LI [1], which indicates that LI ranges from 0
(k)
Moreover,
to 216 1 BI. Thus, TD takes a value over [0, 6553.5] s when
(k) (k)
BI =0.1 s. As in [4], we set the power consumptions of the
(k) (k) (k)
PI 1,2 TD e1,2 TI
(k)
PD =
(22) STA in active, idle, and doze states to EA =1W, EI =0.83W,
(k) (k)
(k) (k)
1,2 TI
1,2 TD
ED =0.13W, respectively. Obviously, power consumption of
[1 e
][1 e
]
(k)

480

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NETWORK AND SERVICE MANAGEMENT, VOL. 9, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2012

TABLE II
SIMULATION PARAMETERS

Parameter

Value

PLCP Preamble Length

144 b

PLCP Header Length

48 b

BI (Beacon interval)

0.1 s

Data rate

11 Mbps

Size of data frame

1300 B

Size of ACK frame

34 B

SlotTime (Length of a time slot)

20 us

SIFS (Short interframe space)

10 us

DIFS (Distributed interframe space)

50 us

CWmin (Minimum contention window)

31

CWmin (Maximum contention window)

1023

N (Number of STAs)

20

Duration of simulation time

100 s
Fig. 5.

different wireless interfaces is different, but the way of finding

(k)
the optimal TI for PBMS-OPT is similar.
Noting that the foundation of the proposed PBMS-OPT
is the fact that ANBF-AP can be considerably reduced by
adjusting TI and/or TD , we first validate this fact by simulations. The simulation program is written in MATLAB and the
simulation parameters are listed in Table II.
Setting PIT=0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 BI, TD =30, 60, 90 s, and
running the simulation for 100 s, which takes about 11 hours
on a Lenovo T400 laptop, we obtain Fig. 5, where the values
corresponding to PIT=0 are those of BPM. It can be clearly
seen from the figure that the total ANBF-AP for the 20 STAs
can be reduced if we choose a suitable pair of TD and PIT.
For instance, we can choose TD =30 s and PIT=2, 3, 4, 5
BI, or TD =60 s and PIT=3, 4, 5 BI, or TD =90 s and PIT=
3, 4, 5 BI if we need to control the total ANBF-AP to be
less than 0.5 104 . Consequently, in PBMS-OPT where TD
is fixed in the AR, we can find a suitable PIT to reduce
the total ANBF-AP, which underlies PBMS-OPT. We have
repeated the simulations with different parameters, and the
above observations remain valid.
From Fig. 5, we obtain another important observation
when TD =90. The total ANBF-AP in BPM (corresponding
to PIT=0) is about 3.2 104 , which occupies 32000 1300
B 40 MB as the size of data frame is set to 1300 B.
This indicates that, if all the ARs are granted, buffer overflow
occurs in a Netgear WG103 AP with 32 MB SDRAM, as
mentioned in Section I, when BPM is applied. However,
this problem disappears by the proposed APP-TPM in which
PBMS-OPT is used.
Now, we move on to investigate the performance of PBMSOPT. Currently, 802.11a/g-based WLANs support data rates
of 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, and 54Mbps. In [7], it is shown
that at these data rates and without considering backoff procedure and RTS/CTS control frames, the transmission times
of a frame with a 1300-byte payload under 802.11a standard are 0.001936, 0.001331, 0.001011, 0.000707, 0.000554,
0.000402, 0.000326, and 0.000302 s, respectively, which are
equivalent to frame transmission rates of approximately 516,
751, 989, 1414, 1805, 2488, 3068, and 3311 frames per
second (fps). Recent 802.11n WLAN standard increases the

Simulation results for total ANBF-AP with various TD and PIT.

maximum data rate to more than 500 Mbps and increases the
frame transmission rate accordingly. Therefore, in the numeric
evaluations, we select =2000 fps [2] as the nominal value.
Intuitively, increases in transmitting/receiving rate should
reduce the ANBF-AP. However, this turns out to be incorrect.
The experiments, in which is set to 1000, 1500, 2000, ...,
(k)
(k)
and 5000, respectively, indicate that, for given 1 and 2 ,
increases in only exert a small influence on the ANBFAP (we omit the figure of this experiment due to space
limitation). The main reason is that, increasing only makes
the STA finish transmitting/receiving frames and enter doze
state sooner, but the ANBF-AP depends on the arrival rate of
the incoming frames. Hence, increasing does not help much
in reducing the ANBF-AP except that it increases the power
consumption. Hence, the observations from the experiments
with =2000 can be applied to other cases in which a different
is chosen.
(k)
Next, we investigate the impact of parameters R and
on the ANBF-AP of the k-th STA, given in (26). Fixing m=1,
(k)
(k)
(k)
i.e., TI =1.5 BI=0.15 s, setting TD =30 s, 2 =10, 20, ...,
(k)
50 fps and R =1, 2, ..., 16, we obtain Fig. 6. In addition,
(k)
setting R to 1, 1/2, ..., and 1/16 leads to Fig. 7.
From Fig. 6, we observe that in the case where the download
(k)
traffic is heavier than the upload traffic, for a given 2 (e.g.,
(k)
(k)
2 =10 fps), ANBF-AP first goes up and then down as R
(k)
(k)
increases (or 1 increases due to 2 fixed). The reason
is that, for a given doze period, more frames arrive at the
(k)
AP when 1 is increased, which causes ANBF-AP to grow.
(k)
But, when 1 continues to increase, the idle time of the
STA decreases, which causes the STA to have less probability
of entering doze state, i.e., the doze period of the STA is
shortened, making ANBF-AP decrease. The same observation
can be obtained from Fig. 7 when upload traffic is heavier
than download traffic. The above observations imply that, the
AP does not need to enlarge its buffer size if the number of
ARs of STAs increases (i.e., if more STAs intend to connect to
(k)
(k)
the WLAN), which contributes to make 1 as well as R
increase.

ZHU et al.: ACCESS POINT BUFFER MANAGEMENT FOR POWER SAVING IN IEEE 802.11 WLANS

(k)

on the ANBF-AP when R

(k)

on the ANBF-AP when R

Fig. 6.

Impacts of R

Fig. 7.

Impacts of R

(k)

1.

(k)

1.

Then, we compare APP-TPM with BPM in terms of ANBF(k)

(k)
(k)
AP. Setting TD =60 s, 2 =10 fps, R =2, 4, 6, and letting
(k)
TI =0.15, 0.25, ..., 1.05 s (i.e., PIT is set to 0.1, 0.2, ..., 1.0
s, respectively) yield Fig. 8, which depicts the reduction ratio
of ANBF-AP, defined as (NBP M NT P M )/NBP M where
NBP M and NT P M represent ANBF-APs under BPM and
(k)
APP-TPM, respectively. Especially, ANBF-AP for R =2 in
Fig. 8 is depicted in Fig. 9, in which each group has two bars
that represent ANBF-AP under BPM on the left and APPTPM on the right. It can be observed that ANBF-AP can be
reduced significantly by increasing PIT slightly. For instance,
(k)
(k)
when R =2, if we select TI =0.25 or 0.45 s (i.e., set PIT
to 0.2 or 0.4 s), ANBF-AP is reduced from 600 (for BPM)
to 300 or close to 0, respectively (see Fig. 9). Equivalently,
the reduction ratio of ANBF-AP can reach 50% or nearly
100%, respectively (see Fig. 8). It implies that, if the buffer
in the AP is enough to hold 300 frames, AR with LI set to
(k)
60 s (i.e., TD =60 s) may not be granted by the AP under

Fig. 8.

Reduction ratio of ANBF-AP in APP-TPM to that in BPM.

Fig. 9.

Comparison of ANBF-AP in APP-TPM with that in BPM.

481

BPM without a high probability of packet drops, but it can be

(k)
granted under the APP-TPM with TI =0.25 or more while
guaranteeing a low probability of packet drops. In other words,
APP-TPM is more flexible and can accommodate more STAs
than BPM. It should be noted that APP-TPM aims to trade
STAs power consumption for their ANBF-AP, i.e., APP-TPM
expends more energy than BPM as the STAs under APPTPM stay idle longer than those under BPM, as mentioned
in Section I.
Finally, we consider PBMS given in (1). It is easy to show
that PBMS is equivalent to the well-known Knapsack problem, which can be solved by heuristic or genetic algorithms
[18] with acceptable complexity due to the small number of
STAs in a typical WLAN. In fact, it also can be solved by
enumeration when the number of pending ARs, i.e. n, is small.
Assume there are 3 pending ARs in the AP, i.e., n=3, and
(1)
(2)
the LIs contained in the ARs are TD =30 s, TD =60 s, and
(3)
(1)
(2)
(3)
TD =90 s, respectively. Fix 2 = 2 = 2 =10 fps and
(1)
(2)
(3)
(1)
R = R = R =1, 2, or 3; set the upper bound of TI ,

482

Fig. 10.
(2)

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NETWORK AND SERVICE MANAGEMENT, VOL. 9, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2012

The optimal power consumption with buffer size constraint.

Fig. 11. The PDF in BPM and the ratio of power consumption between
APP-TPM and BPM.

(3)

TI , TI to 2000; and let the upper bound of the available

memory size be 200, 400, ..., and 1200, respectively. Thus,
PBMS-OPT in (1) can be recast as (27).
1
1
1
+ x(2) (2) + x(3) (3)
(1)
E
E
E
(1)
(2)
(3)
w.r.t. x(1) , x(2) , x(3) ; TI , TI , TI

Max x(1)

(1)

(2)

(3)

s.t. x(1) LAP + x(2) LAP + x(3) LAP ;

(27)

x(1) , x(2) , x(3) {0, 1};

(1)

(2)

(3)

TI , TI , TI

2000

Via genetic algorithm, we obtain the optimal power consumption of the above PBMS-OPT, which is shown in the
upper part in Fig. 10, where R = i represents the case
(1)
(2)
(3)
when R = R = R = i(i = 1, 2, 3). Moreover, the
(1)
(2)
(3)
corresponding best TI , TI and TI for R =3 are depicted
in the lower part in the figure.
From Fig. 10, we observe that, as the buffer size constraint
is gradually relaxed, power consumption can be gradu(1)
(2)
(3)
ally decreased by finding the optimal TI , TI and TI .
For example, when =200, for the case R =3, by setting
(1)
(2)
(3)
TI = TI =0.25 and TI =0.45 (see the lower part of the
figure), the power consumption is about 2400 mW (see the
upper part of the figure), which can be reduced to about 1700
(1)
(2)
(3)
mW by choosing TI =0.05 and TI =TI =0.25 when =600.
This supports the key idea of our APP-TPM that trades power
consumption for memory usage.
As mentioned above, APP-TPM is able to trade off more
power consumption for less frame discarding by adjusting
the pair of parameters TI and TD , whereas BPM does not
have this flexibility. To illustrate this tradeoff, we evaluate
the Percentage of Frame Discarded (PFD) by the AP under
BPM due to insufficient memory. Let D1 represent ANBFAP under BPM. Since the AP buffer size is , D1 is
the average number of the frames discarded by the AP due to
buffer overflow. Hence, PFD = max{(D1 )/D1 , 0}100%
since PFD must be non-negative. Additionally, we evaluate the
ratio of the power consumption with APP-TPM to that with
BPM.

Fig. 11 illustrates the PFD in BPM (see the upper part of the
figure) and the ratio of power consumption between APP-TPM
and BPM (see the lower part of the figure) when =200, 400,
..., 1200. From Fig. 11, we observe that: 1) PFD decreases as
grows and no frame discarding occurs when is sufficient for
buffering frames (e.g., =1000 in the case when R =1), which
agrees with our intuitions; and 2) when memory shortage
exists in the AP (e.g., <1000), APP-TPM consumes more
energy than BPM (i.e., the ratio of power consumption is
larger than 1), but APP-TPM and BMP consume about the
same power when the AP has enough memory to buffer frames
(e.g., =1000 in the case when R =1). In the case that R =2,
with tight memory constraint, e.g., =200, with BPM nearly
90 % of frames are discarded, while APP-TPM can reduce
frame discarding by consuming nearly 5.5 times more power
than BPM. However, when a larger memory, e.g., =1200 or
more, is available, power consumption of APP-TPM reduces
to less than twice the power consumption of BPM, which still
drops about 35% of the frames.
(k)

Given that ANBF-AP of the k-th STA is given by LAP ,

the actual NBF-AP in each sleeping period of the STA may
be larger or smaller than the average. Hence with APP-TPM,
it is still possible that some frames are discarded by the AP
due to buffer overflow even though the idle timer of the STA
is set to the optimal value derived in PBMS-OPT given in
(1). This problem can be remedied by one of the following
two methods. One method is to set to 0 , a number smaller
than the available memory size in the AP. For instance, if the
available memory size is 32MB in the AP and packet size
is 1300 B, then the maximum number of the frames that the
AP can buffer is 32MB/1300B25811. Thus, we can choose
0 <25811, say 0 =20000. In fact, the AP can use some
learning mechanism to determine the best 0 . Another method
is to limit the packet discarding probability (i.e., memory
overflow probability) to a preset value P0 . In this case the
optimization problem can be recast by adding n inequalities

ZHU et al.: ACCESS POINT BUFFER MANAGEMENT FOR POWER SAVING IN IEEE 802.11 WLANS

in the following equation to the constraint of (1)

(k)

x(k) P AP (j) < P0 , k = 1, 2, ..., n

(28)

j=+1

where the sum on the left side represents the probability of

memory overflow in the AP for the k-th STA. Obviously, the
new optimization problem can be solved by searching in the
optimal solution of PBMS-OPT given in (1) for the STAs
satisfying (28).
It should be pointed out that the above observations are
from the proposed model based on Poisson traffic. In practice
traffic may be bursty, in which case the model may not match
very well. In future work we shall validate the model using
real traffic traces to quantify the performance of the proposed
algorithm under more realistic conditions.
VI. R ELATED W ORK
Hitherto, many power saving schemes for infrastructure
WLANs have been proposed and most of them remedy the
shortcomings existing in the BPM introduced in the 802.11
standard [1]. Noting that, in BPM, all the STAs having pending
frames are informed by the AP at the beginning of each beacon
interval, which may cause multiple STAs to compete for the
channel and hence reduce the system throughput, Aste et al.
[8] proposed a power saving scheme that let the AP select
several of the STAs with pending frames to be woken up at
a time while deferring transmissions of the pending frames
of the other STAs to successive beacon intervals, based on a
cost function that takes power consumption and packet latency
into account. Gan et al. [9] presented a scheme that schedules
awake times among STAs optimally such that the number
of STAs competing to access the channel at the same time
as well as frame loss and delay time are reduced, and they
have proved that both the maximal number of STAs that are
allocated in the same beacon slot and the number of the beacon
slots that are allocated for the maximal number of STAs are
minimal when the proposed scheme is executed. Additionally,
He et al. [10] presented a scheme to deliver pending data
packets, which divides a beacon period into multiple slices and
uses scheduled transmission for delivery of buffered frames.
An AP-centric power saving scheme was proposed by Xie et
al. [11], which lets the AP choose the optimal BI and LIs
based on the traffic patterns of STAs and schedule the STAs
to wake up at different times to increase energy efficiency
by reducing STAs simultaneous wake-ups. Moreover, frame
buffering delay, together with the metrics of power saving,
throughput, and energy efficiency, are used to evaluate the
performance of the proposed scheme. Sarkar [12] proposed an
adaptive algorithm that dynamically adjusts the sleep durations
according to average packet arrival rates and packet delay
constraints.
Evidently, the prerequisite of implementing the above surveyed schemes is that the AP has a sufficiently large buffer
size. These schemes may cause too many buffered frames to
be discarded by the AP due to the lack of a sufficient amount
of memory to buffer them, since prolonging the sleep period or
deferring transmissions of the pending frames both contribute
to an increase in the number of buffered frames in the AP.

483

Under the BPM introduced in the IEEE 802.11 standard,

the STA operating in power saving mode wakes up at every
LI to listen to the beacon to see whether the TIM contained in
the beacon frame indicates its frames are buffered at the AP or
not. If yes, the STA contends for the channel to transmit a PSpoll frame to the AP to retrieve the buffered frames. Hence,
BPM causes the downlink (AP to STA) packet delay to depend
on the BI. That is, a larger BI may yield a larger downlink
packet delay. Perez-Costa et al. [13] presented a scheme called
adaptive power saving mode algorithm (APSM) that reduces
the downlink packet delay according to the downlink frame
interarrival time observed at the AP MAC layer. In addition,
Lo et al. [14] presented a multipolling mechanism, called contention period multipoll (CP-Multipoll), which incorporates
the DCF access scheme into the polling scheme. The proposed
CP-Multipoll scheme is able to guarantee the bounded delay
requirements of real-time flows. In addition, Hsieh et al. [15]
presented an energy-efficient multipoll (EE-Multipoll) MAC
scheme, which combines power management with a low MAC
protocol overhead; they also determined a suitable wake-up
time schedule to achieve a desirable guarantee of bandwidth
utilization. Again, the buffer size in the AP impacts on whether
the above proposed schemes can be realized.
As mentioned in the introduction section, buffer size of the
AP should be considered in a power management scheme so
that the frames buffered in the AP for a dozing STA do not
get discarded, which reduces the needs of the upper layers
in the protocol stack to retransmit the packets and maintains
a high system throughput. It is shown in [16] that, the use
of fixed-size buffers in 802.11 networks inevitably leads to
either undesirable channel underutilization or unnecessarily
high delays; high throughput and low delay can be achieved by
dynamic buffer-sizing algorithms. Unfortunately, none of the
power management schemes in the literature have considered
buffer size or buffer utilization. We finally stress again that
our proposed PBMS, which is based on dynamic buffer size,
fills this gap. There exist a couple of models for analyzing
the performance of power saving schemes. Zheng et al.
[4] proposed a time-out driven power management scheme
and presented a multiple vacation M/G/1/K queuing model
to analyze the performance of this scheme. He et al. [17]
provided a Markov chain model to analyze the performance
of the power saving protocols for multicast services in WLANs
in addition to a theoretical framework for several power saving
protocols including IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n. In our previous work
[2] and this paper, we model TPM based on a vector Markov
process and provide the stochastic analysis.
Since we could not find any paper in the literature that
deals with both buffer management and power management
in IEEE 802.11-based infrastructure WLAN, we only compare
our proposed APP-TPM with BPM as specified in the IEEE
802.11 standard, i.e., a comparison between our APP-TPM
and other schemes is not presented in this paper.
VII. C ONCLUSIONS
Conserving energy is an important topic for WLAN. We
have proposed the AP-priority TPM scheme and investigated
it extensively by developing a realistic model with two queues
to separately hold incoming frames and outgoing frames. The

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model enables derivations of the key statistics of APP-TPM,

based on which we have proposed PBMS. Compared with
BPM given in the IEEE 802.11 standard, under a fixed amount
of memory in the AP, the proposed PBMS can accommodate
as many ARs as possible by trading power consumption for a
reduced frame dropping probability. This is accomplished by
changing the values of the timers TI and TD .
A PPENDIX I
For the sake of conciseness, we omit the superscripts, i.e.,
(k)
(k)
(k)
(k)s, in 1 , 2 , 1,2 , (k) (x), and (k) (x).
Firstly, the state transitions relevant to state I in Fig. 4 reveal
that the probability of the STA in state I at time t + t, i.e.,
PI (t + t), equals to the sum of the following:
1) the probability that the STA is in state I at time t, and
during t, the accumulated idle time (AIT) of the STA does
not exceed TI and no new frames comes;
2) the probability that the STA is in state A0,0 at time t,
and during t, the AIT of the STA does not exceed TI and
no new frames comes.
The above statement yields the following according to (4).
[PI (t + t) PI (t)]/t = 1,2 PI (t)/(1 e1,2 TI )
+ qA0,0 (t)(1 1 t)(1 2 t) + o(t)/t
Letting t approach 0 leads to (5).
Secondly, from state A0,0 in Fig. 4, the probability that the
STA in state A0,0 at time t + t equals to the sum of the
following six items:
1) the probability that the STA is in state A0,0 at time t,
and during t, the STA continues TX/RX and no new frames
comes;
2) the probability that the STA is in state A0,1 at time t,
and during t, the STA finishes TX/RX and no new frames
comes;
3) the probability that the STA is in state A1,0 at time t,
and during t, the STA finishes TX/RX and no new frames
comes;
4) the probability that the STA is in state D0,1 at time t, and
during t, the STA stops dozing and no new frames comes;
5) the probability that the STA is in state D1,0 at time t, and
during t, the STA stops dozing and no new frames comes;
6) the probability that the STA is in state I at time t, and
during t, the AIT does not exceed TI but an incoming or
outgoing frame comes.
Summing up, we have
[qA0,0 (t + t) qA0,0 (t)]/t = qA0,0 (t)[( + 1,2 )
+ o(t)/t] + qA0,1 (t)(1 1 t)(1 2 t)
+ qA1,0 (t)(1 1 t)(1 2 t)

+ (1 1 t)(1 2 t)
pD0,1 (t, x) (x)dx
0
+ (1 1 t)(1 2 t)
pD1,0 (t, x) (x)dx
0

+ PI (t)1,2 [1 1,2 e1,2 TI t/(1 e1,2 TI ) + o(t)]

Then, letting t approach 0 leads to (6). Moreover, (7)-(9)
are similarly derived.

Thirdly, the probability that the STA is in state D0,0 with

ADT s t at time t, expressed as pD0,0 (t + t, s)t
according to (3), equals to the sum of the following:
1) the probability that the STA is in state I at time t, and
during t, the AIT exceeds TI but no new frame comes, i.e.,
(1 1 t)(1 2 t)PI (t) Pr{I + t TI |I < TI };
2) the probability that the STA is in state D0,0 with
ADT x (0, ) at time t, and during t, the STA
stops
 dozing and no new frame comes, which equals to
0 pD0,0 (t, x) (x)t(1 1 t)(1 2 t)dx;
Summing up, using (4), dividing the derived equation by
t, and letting t 0 (s 0 as well), we have (10).
Clearly, the STA cannot change its state to D0,j when there
is a frame buffered at the AP. In other words, it is impossible
that the STA is in state D0,j with ADT s t when j =
1, 2, .... Consequently,
pD0,j (t + t, s)t = P {(t + t) = D0,j ,
s < Y (t + t) s + t} = 0, j = 1, 2, ...
Dividing by t and letting t 0, we obtain (11).
Fourthly, the probability that the STA is in state D0,0 with
ADT x + t(x > 0) at time t + t, equals to the probability
that the STA is in state D0,0 with ADT x at time t, and during
t, the STA continues dozing and no new frame comes. Thus,
we have (12).
Lastly, the probability that the STA is in state D0,j (j =
1, 2, ...) with ADT x + t(x > 0) at time t + t, equals to
the sum of two items: 1) the probability that the STA is in state
D0,j with ADT x at time t, and during t, the STA continues
dozing and no new frame comes; and 2) the probability that
the STA is in state D0,j1 with ADT x at time t, and during
t, the STA continues dozing and there is an incoming frame
arrives at the AP but no outgoing frame generated at the STA.
Thus we obtain (13). Similarly, we obtain (14) and (15).
A PPENDIX II
As did in Appendix I, we omit all the superscripts of
(k) in the following description. Given a pdf h(x), its
Transform (LST) is denoted by h (s) =
Laplace-Stieltjes
sx
h(x)dx(s > 0).
0 e
In the APP-TPM, doze period D takes a deterministic
value TD , i.e., Pr{D = TD }=1 and Pr{D = TD }=0,
which implies that the pdf of D is a Dirac function; i.e.,
g(x) = (x TD ) [2] satisfying


h(x)g(x)dx =
h(x)(x TD )dt = h(TD ) (a.1)
0

Additionally, we have
G(x) = Pr{D x} =

0, x < TD ;
1, x TD

(a.2)

Performing LST on t in (12)-(15) and using (16) leads to

(a.3). The correctness of (a.3) can be validated by directly substituting it into the equations derived from (12)-(15) performed
by LST.
i2 j1 i+j
x pD0,0 (s, 0)e(s+1,2 )x G(x),
i!j!
(i, j = 0, 1, 2...)

pDi,j (s, x) =

(a.3)

ZHU et al.: ACCESS POINT BUFFER MANAGEMENT FOR POWER SAVING IN IEEE 802.11 WLANS

Let lim spD0,0 (s, 0). Then (a.1) and (a.3) leads to
s0

Multiplying (a.14) by y i , summing the derived equations

for i = 1, 2, ... yields

pDi,j (t, x) (x)dx


= lim s
pDi,j (s, x) (x)dx
lim

K(y, z) =

s0

(a.4)

i j
= 2 1 (TD )i+j e1,2 TD (i, j = 0, 1, ...)
i!j!

+ 1 TD e

+ 2 TD e

(a.5)

=0

qA0,j ( + 1,2 ) + qA0,j+1 + 1 qA0,j1

(a.6)

+ e1,2 TD (1 TD )j+1 /(j + 1)! = 0, j = 1, 2, ...

qAi,0 ( + 1,2 ) + 2 qAi1,0 + qAi+1,0

(a.7)

+ 1 (2 )i (TD )i+1 e1,2 TD /i! = 0, i = 1, 2, ...

qAi,j ( + 1,2 ) + 2 qAi1,j + qAi,j+1 + (TD )i+j+1
e1,2 TD (2 )i (1 )j+1 /[i!(j + 1)!] = 0, i, j = 1, 2, ...
(a.8)
Letting t in (5) and using (2) produce
(a.9)

1,2 e
(1 e1,2 TI )(1 e1,2 TD )

(a.10)

Multiplying (a.6) by z j , summing

 the derived equations for
j = 1, 2, ..., and using ex = n=0 xn /n!, we obtain
Q0 (z) = {[ ( + 1,2 )z]qA0,0 + zqA0,1
e1,2 TD (e1 TD z 1 TD z 1)}

(a.12)

/[1 z ( + 1,2 )z + ]
Obviously, the denominator of (a.12) has a unique root z0 in
the interval (0, 1), which is shown in (18). Clearly, z-transform
Q0 (z) is an analytic function over (0, 1). Thus, the numerator
of (a.12) has to be 0 when z = z0 , which yields
1
{[( + 1,2 )z0 ]qA0,0
z0
+ e1,2 TD (e1 TD z0 1 TD z0 1)}

(a.13)

Substituting (a.13) into (a.12) and applying (a.9) and (a.10)

produce Q0 (z) shown in (20). Multiplying (a.8) by z j , summing the derived equations for j = 1, 2, ..., we obtain
1,2 TD

(2 TD ) 1 TD z
(e
1 TD z 1)
z
i!

(a.14)
( + 1,2 )(Qi (z) qAi,0 )
z
+ 2 (Qi1 (z) qAi1,0 ) qAi,1 = 0, i = 1, 2, ...

y i qAi,1 = 2 yQ0 (zy )/ 2 yqA0,0 /

+ e1,2 TD (e2 TD y 1)(e1 TD zy 1 TD zy 1)/(zy )

(a.16)
Multiplying (a.7) by y i , summing the derived equations for
i = 1, 2, ... leads to

y i qAi,0 = qA0,0 +

zy
{yqA1,0 + 2 y 2 Q0 (zy )}
(y zy )

+ e1,2 TD [(e2 TD y 1)(e1 TD zy 1 TD zy 1)y/zy

+ 1 TD y(e2 TD y 1) + (e2 TD y 2 TD y 1)]}
(a.17)

1,2 TI

From (a.3) and (a.2), we have


i j TD i+j 1,2 x
pDi,j = 2 1
x e
dx, i, j = 0, 1, 2, ... (a.11)
i!j! 0

qA0,1 =

Evidently, zy shown in (19) is the root of the denominator of

the second term in (a.15). Hence, the numerator of the second
term (the expression within the pair of curly braces) equals to
0 when z = zy , which leads to

i=0

Using (10) and (a.4), we have

= PI

i=0

{[( + 1,2 )z ]Q0 (z) [( + 1,2 )z ]qA0,0

(a.15)


i
1,2 TD 2 TD y
z
y qAi,1 + e
(e
1)

i=1

+ qAi,1 + e1,2 TD (2 TD )i+1 /(i + 1)!

qA0,0 = PI /(1 e1,2 TI )

y i qAi,0 + [( + 1,2 2 y)z ]1

(e1 TD z 1 TD z 1)}

qA0,0 ( + 1,2 ) + qA0,1 + qA1,0 + 1,2 PI

1,2 TD

i=1

Letting t in (6)-(9), using (a.4), we have

1,2 TD

485

From (a.5) and (a.13), we have

1
qA1,0 = qA0,0 PI
z0
e1 TD z0 1 TD z0 1
e1,2 TD [TD +
]
z0

(a.18)

From (a.15)-(a.18), we obtain (17). In addition, letting z =

1 in (20), we obtain Q0 (1). Then, setting y = 1 and z = 1 in
(17) yields (23). Moreover, using (a.11) and (a.10), we have
(k)
(k)
(k)
(22). Further, using (22), (23), and PD + PA + PI = 1
leads to (21).
Using (a.11), we obtain
 TD


(1 x)j 1 x
e
P AP (j) =
PDi,j =
dx
j!
0
i=0
which yields (25) through using (a.10) and integration by
parts. Moreover, the preceding equation also yields (26) by
using Talor series of ex as follows:
LAP =

jP AP (j) =

i=0

1 (TD )2
2

which is equivalent to (26) after substituting (a.10).

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Yi-Hua Zhu (M01-SM07) received his B.S. degree

in mathematics from Zhejiang Normal University,
Zhejiang, China, in July 1982; his M.S. degree in
operation research and cybernetics from Shanghai
University, Shanghai, China in April 1993; and his
Ph.D. degree in computer science and technology
from Zhejiang University, Zhejiang, China, in March
2003.
Dr. Zhu is a professor at Zhejiang University of
Technology, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. He is a
member of China Computer Federation Technical
Committee on Sensor Network. His current research interests include information dissemination, stochastic modeling and analysis, power management,
mobility management for wireless networks, and network coding. He has
served as technical program committee members in the international conferences ICC, WCNC, GlobeCom, etc. He is the recipient of the Best Paper
Award of Chinacom 2008. He has published more than 120 research papers
in proceedings and journals including IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON W IRELESS
C OMMUNICATIONS, IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON V EHICULAR T ECHNOLOGY,
and more.

Han-Cheng Lu received his B.S. degree in information science and technology from Nangjing University of Posts and Telecommunications in 2008. He
is currently a candidate student for his master degree in computer science.

Victor C. M. Leung (S75-M89-SM97-F03) received the B.A.Sc. (Hons.) degree in electrical engineering from the University of British Columbia
(U.B.C.) in 1977, and was awarded the APEBC
Gold Medal as the head of the graduating class
in the Faculty of Applied Science. He attended
graduate school at U.B.C. on a Natural Sciences and
Engineering Research Council Postgraduate Scholarship and completed the Ph.D. degree in electrical
engineering in 1981.
From 1981 to 1987, Dr. Leung was a Senior
Member of Technical Staff at MPR Teltech Ltd. In 1988, he was a Lecturer
in the Department of Electronics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
He returned to U.B.C. as a faculty member in 1989, and currently holds
the positions of Professor and TELUS Mobility Research Chair in Advanced
Telecommunications Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Leung has co-authored more than 500 technical papers
in international journals and conference proceedings, and several of these
papers had been selected for best paper awards. His research interests are in
the areas of wireless networks and mobile systems.
Dr. Leung is a registered professional engineer in the Province of British
Columbia, Canada. He is a Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of the Engineering
Institute of Canada, and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering.
He is a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Communications Society. He
has served on the editorial boards of the IEEE J OURNAL ON S ELECTED
A REAS IN C OMMUNICATIONS Wireless Communications Series, the IEEE
T RANSACTIONS ON W IRELESS C OMMUNICATIONS and the IEEE T RANS ACTIONS ON V EHICULAR T ECHNOLOGY , and is serving on the editorial
boards of the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON C OMPUTERS , IEEE W IRELESS
C OMMUNICATIONS L ETTERS , Computer Communications, the Journal of
Communications and Networks, as well as several other journals. He has
guest-edited many journal special issues, and served on the technical program
committee of numerous international conferences, and contributed to the
organization of many international conferences. He is a winner of the IEEE
Vancouver Section Centennial Award and a 2011 U.B.C. Killam Research
Prize.