What’s New for QoS in IEEE 802.11?

Two amendments to IEEE 802.11 have recently been published: 802.11aa and802.11ae. Both enhance Quality of Service (QoS) provisioning in Wi-Fi networksby providing support for multicast transmission, enhanced audio video streaming,coping with inter-network interference, and improved prioritization of managementframes. The proposed solutions either extend mechanisms already existing in thestandard or introduce new ones. Therefore, it is important for researchers to understandthe new functionalities. To this end we provide the first description of theselatest mechanisms: we present the motivation behind them, explain their designprinciples, provide examples of usage, and comment on compatibility issues. Finally,we identify new research challenges related to the two new amendments.