A cross-layer architecture to improve mobile host rate performance and to solve unfairness problem in WLANs

The evolution of the Internet has been mainly promoted in recent years by the emergence and pro- liferation of wireless access networks towards a global ambient and pervasive network accessed from mobile devices. These new access networks have introduced new MAC layers independently of the legacy "wire- oriented" protocols that are still at the heart of the pro- tocol stacks of the end systems. This principle of isola- tion and independence between layers advocated by the OSI model has its drawbacks of maladjustment between new access methods and higher-level protocols built on the assumption of a wired Internet. In this paper, we introduce and deliver solutions for several pathologi- cal communication behaviors resulting from the malad- justment between WLAN MAC and higher layer stan- dard protocols such as TCP/IP and UDP/IP. Specially, based on an efficient analytical model for WLANs band- width estimation, we address in this paper the two fol- lowing issues: 1) Performance degradation due to the lack of flow control between the MAC and upper layer resulting in potential MAC buffer overflow; 2) Unfair bandwidth share issues between various type of flows. We show how these syndromes can be efficiently solved from neutral "cross layer" interactions which entail no changes in the considered protocols and standards

Greediness control algorithm for multimedia streaming in wireless local area networks

This work investigates the interaction between the application and transport layers while streaming multimedia in a residential Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). Inconsistencies have been identified that can have a severe impact on the Quality of Experience (QoE) experienced by end users. This problem arises as a result of the streaming processes reliance on rate adaptation engines based on congestion avoidance mechanisms, that try to obtain as much bandwidth as possible from the limited network resources. These upper transport layer mechanisms have no knowledge of the media which they are carrying and as a result treat all traffic equally. This lack of knowledge of the media carried and the characteristics of the target devices results in fair bandwidth distribution at the transport layer but creates unfairness at the application layer. This unfairness mostly affects user perceived quality when streaming high quality multimedia. Essentially, bandwidth that is distributed fairly between competing video streams at the transport layer results in unfair application layer video quality distribution. Therefore, there is a need to allow application layer streaming solutions, tune the aggressiveness of transport layer congestion control mechanisms, in order to create application layer QoE fairness between competing media streams, by taking their device characteristics into account. This thesis proposes the Greediness Control Algorithm (GCA), an upper transport layer mechanism that eliminates quality inconsistencies caused by rate / congestion control mechanisms while streaming multimedia in wireless networks. GCA extends an existing solution (i.e. TCP Friendly Rate Control (TFRC)) by introducing two parameters that allow the streaming application to tune the aggressiveness of the rate estimation and as a result, introduce fair distribution of quality at the application layer. The thesis shows that this rate adaptation technique, combined with a scalable video format allows increased overall system QoE. Extensive simulation analysis demonstrate that this form of rate adaptation increases the overall user QoE achieved via a number of devices operating within the same home WLAN

Transport protocols for multi hop wireless networks

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Quality of service differentiation for multimedia delivery in wireless LANs

Delivering multimedia content to heterogeneous devices over a variable networking environment while maintaining high quality levels involves many technical challenges. The research reported in this thesis presents a solution for Quality of Service (QoS)-based service differentiation when delivering multimedia content over the wireless LANs. This thesis has three major contributions outlined below: 1. A Model-based Bandwidth Estimation algorithm (MBE), which estimates the available bandwidth based on novel TCP and UDP throughput models over IEEE 802.11 WLANs. MBE has been modelled, implemented, and tested through simulations and real life testing. In comparison with other bandwidth estimation techniques, MBE shows better performance in terms of error rate, overhead, and loss. 2. An intelligent Prioritized Adaptive Scheme (iPAS), which provides QoS service differentiation for multimedia delivery in wireless networks. iPAS assigns dynamic priorities to various streams and determines their bandwidth share by employing a probabilistic approach-which makes use of stereotypes. The total bandwidth to be allocated is estimated using MBE. The priority level of individual stream is variable and dependent on stream-related characteristics and delivery QoS parameters. iPAS can be deployed seamlessly over the original IEEE 802.11 protocols and can be included in the IEEE 802.21 framework in order to optimize the control signal communication. iPAS has been modelled, implemented, and evaluated via simulations. The results demonstrate that iPAS achieves better performance than the equal channel access mechanism over IEEE 802.11 DCF and a service differentiation scheme on top of IEEE 802.11e EDCA, in terms of fairness, throughput, delay, loss, and estimated PSNR. Additionally, both objective and subjective video quality assessment have been performed using a prototype system. 3. A QoS-based Downlink/Uplink Fairness Scheme, which uses the stereotypes-based structure to balance the QoS parameters (i.e. throughput, delay, and loss) between downlink and uplink VoIP traffic. The proposed scheme has been modelled and tested through simulations. The results show that, in comparison with other downlink/uplink fairness-oriented solutions, the proposed scheme performs better in terms of VoIP capacity and fairness level between downlink and uplink traffic

Quality of service provision in mobile multimedia - a survey

The prevalence of multimedia applications has drastically increased the amount of multimedia data. With the drop of the hardware cost, more and more mobile devices with higher capacities are now used. The widely deployed wireless LAN and broadband wireless networks provide the ubiquitous network access for multimedia applications. Provision of Quality of Service (QoS) is challenging in mobile ad hoc networks because of the dynamic characteristics of mobile networks and the limited resources of the mobile devices. The wireless network is not reliable due to node mobility, multi-access channel and multi-hop communication. In this paper, we provide a survey of QoS provision in mobile multimedia, addressing the technologies at different network layers and cross-layer design. This paper focuses on the QoS techniques over IEEE 802.11e networks. We also provide some thoughts about the challenges and directions for future research

Adaptive multimedia streaming control algorithm in wireless LANs and 4G networks

E-learning has become an important service offered over the Internet. Lately many users are accessing learning content via wireless networks and using mobile devices. Most content is rich media-based and often puts significant pressure on the existing wireless networks in order to support high quality of delivery. In this context, offering a solution for improving user quality of experience when multimedia content is delivered over wireless networks is already a challenging task. Additionally, to support this for mobile e-learning over wireless LANs becomes even more difficult. If we want to increase the end-used perceived quality, we have to take into account the users’ individual set of characteristics. The fact that users have subjective opinions on the quality of a multimedia application can be used to increase their QoE by setting a minimum quality threshold below which the connection is considered to be undesired. Like this, the use of precious radio resources can be optimized in order to simultaneously satisfy an increased number of users. In this thesis a new user-oriented adaptive algorithm based on QOAS was designed and developed in order to address the user satisfaction problem. Simulations have been carried out with different adaptation schemes to compare the performances and benefits of the DQOAS mechanism. The simulation results are showing that using a dynamic stream granularity with a minimum threshold for the transmission rate, improves the overall quality of the multimedia delivery process, increasing the total number of satisfied users and the link utilization The good results obtained by the algorithm in IEEE 802.11 wireless environment, motivated the research about the utility of the newly proposed algorithm in another wireless environment, LTE. The study shows that DQOAS algorithm can obtain good results in terms of application perceived quality, when the considered application generates multiple streams. These results can be improved by using a new QoS parameters mapping scheme able to modify the streams’ priority and thus allowing the algorithms decisions to not be overridden by the systems’ scheduler

End to end architecture and mechanisms for mobile and wireless communications in the Internet

Architecture et mécanismes de bout en bout pour les communications mobiles et sans fil dans l'Internet. La gestion performante de la mobilité et l'amélioration des performances des couches basses sont deux enjeux fondamentaux dans le contexte des réseaux sans fil. Cette thèse apporte des solutions originales et innovantes qui visent à répondre à ces deux problématiques empêchant à ce jour d'offrir des possibilités de communication performantes et sans couture aux usagers mobiles accédant à l'Internet via des réseaux d'accès locaux sans fil (WLAN). Ces solutions se distinguent en particulier par l'impact minimum qu'elles ont sur les protocoles standards de l'Internet (niveaux transport et réseau) ou de l'IEEE (niveaux physique et liaison de données). S'inscrivant dans les paradigmes de "bout en bout" et "cross-layer", notre architecture permet d'offrir des solutions efficaces pour la gestion de la mobilité : gestion de la localisation et des handover en particulier. En outre, nous montrons que notre approche permet également d'améliorer l'efficacité des transmissions ainsi que de résoudre efficacement plusieurs syndromes identifiés au sein de 802.11 tels que les anomalies de performance, l'iniquité entre les flux et l'absence de contrôle de débit entre la couche MAC et les couches supérieures. Cette thèse résout ces problèmes en combinant des modèles analytiques, des simulations et de réelles expérimentations. Ces mécanismes adaptatifs ont été développés et intégrés dans une architecture de communication qui fournit des services de communication à haute performance pour réseaux sans fils tels que WIFI et WIMAX. ABSTRACT : Wireless networks, because of the potential pervasive and mobile communication services they offer, are becoming the dominant Internet access networks. However, the legacy Internet protocols, still dominant at that time, have not been designed with mobility and wireless in mind. Therefore, numerous maladjustments and “defaults of impedance” can be observed when combining wireless physical and MAC layers with the traditional upper layers. This thesis proposes several solutions for a pacific coexistence between these communication layers that have been defined and designed independently. Reliable mobility management and Low layer performance enhancements are two main challenging issues in the context of wireless networks. Mobility management (which is mostly based on mobile IP architecture nowadays) aims to continuously assign and control the wireless connections of mobile nodes amongst a space of wireless access networks. Low layer performance enhancements mainly focus on the transmission efficiency such as higher rate, lower loss, interference avoidance. This thesis addresses these two important issues from an original and innovative approach that, conversely to the traditional contributions, entails a minimum impact on the legacy protocols and internet infrastructure. Following the “end to end” and “cross layer” paradigms, we address and offer efficient and light solutions to fast handover, location management and continuous connection support through a space of wireless networks. Moreover, we show that such an approach makes it possible to enhance transmission efficiency and solve efficiently several syndromes that plague the performances of current wireless networks such as performance anomaly, unfairness issues and maladjustment between MAC layer and upper layers. This thesis tackles these issues by combining analytical models, simulations and real experiments. The resulting mechanisms have been developed and integrated into adaptive mobility management communication architecture that delivers high performing communication services to mobile wireless systems, with a focus on WIFI and WIMAX access networks

Fairness and transmission opportunity limit in IEEE 802.11e enhanced distributed channel access

Tämä diplomityö tutkii lähetysaikarajan vaikutusta verkon reiluuteen IEEE802.11e tehostettuun ja hajautettuun kommunikaatiokanavaan pääsyyn. IEEE802.11e tuo palvelunlaatuominaisuuksia IEEE802.11 langattomiin verkkoihin. Asemat, jotka käyttävät IEEE802.11e-ominaisuuksia jakavat liikenteen neljään kategoriaan. Kategorioiden välinen erottelu saavutetaan neljällä parametrilla, jotka kontrolloivat kanavaan pääsyä. Tämä työ tutkii yhtä näistä parametreistä, lähetysaikarajaa, joka kontrolloi lähetyksen kestoa. IEEE802.11e antaa referenssiarvoja parametreille, mutta näillä arvoilla verkon kuormituksen lisääntyessä, alemman prioriteetin liikenne kärsii nopeasti. Hyvin pian kuormituksen lisääntyessä alemman prioriteetin liikenne ei pääse verkosta läpi lainkaan. Tällöin myös verkon reiluus on matala. Reiluuden parantamiseksi, häiritsemättä korkean prioriteetin liikennettä, tämä työ tutkii ison lähetysaikarajan käyttöä. Ensimmäisessä simulaatiosarjassa alemman prioriteetin lähetysaikaraja on ääretön. Tämä tarkoitta sitä, että alemman prioriteetin jono voi lähettää kaikki pakettinsa kun se pääsee lähettämään. Tulokset osoittavat, että ääretön lähetysaikaraja parantaa reiluutta kun kanava on kuormittumassa. Tulokset osoittavat myös, että ääretön lähetysaikaraja ei merkittävästi heikennä korkean prioriteetin liikennettä. Toinen simulaatiosarja keskittyy sellaiseen verkon kuormitustilaan, missä äärettömän lähetysaikarajan vaikutus on suurin. Näissä simulaatioissa lähetysaikarajan arvo on staattinen. Simulaatiosta toiseen lähetysaikarajan arvo muutetaan toiseen arvoon väliltä nolla-suurin sallittu arvo. Tulokset näistä simulaatioista ovat hyvin samanlaiset kuin ensimmäisen simulaatiosarjan tulokset.This thesis investigates the effect of transmission opportunity limit on fairness in IEEE802.11e enhanced distributed channel access. IEEE802.11e brings quality of service features into IEEE802.11 wireless local area networks. In stations operating with IEEE802.11e, traffic is divided into categories. Differentiation between these categories is achieved by using four parameters to control the channel access. This thesis investigates one of these parameters, the transmission opportunity limit, which controls the channel access duration. With the reference parameter values given in IEEE802.11e, as the network congestion level increases, low priority traffic suffers quickly to a point where none of it gets transmitted. This makes the network overall fairness poor. To improve fairness while not disturbing high priority traffic, this thesis investigates the use of large transmission opportunity limit values. In the first set of simulations, the low priority traffic transmission opportunity limit values are set to infinite. This means that the low priority queue can send all its packets when it gains access to the channel. The results show that infinite transmission opportunity limit improves fairness when channel is getting congested. Also infinite transmission opportunity limit does not notably weaken high priority traffic performance. Second set of simulations focuses on the network congestion level where the effect of the infinite transmission opportunity limit is the largest. In these simulations the transmission opportunity limit is set to static value ranging from zero to a maximum allowed value. The results from these simulations are similar to the results of the first simulation set

Stochastig modeling with continuous feedback markov fluid queues

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Markov fluid queues (MFQ) are systems in which a continuous-time Markov chain determines the net rate into (or out of ) a buffer. We deal with continuous feedback MFQs (CFMFQ) for which the infinitesimal generator of the background process and the drifts in each state are allowed to depend on the buffer level through continuous functions. Explicit solutions of CFMFQs for a few special cases has been reported, but usually numerical methods are preferred. A numerically stable solution method based on ordered Schur decomposition is already known for multi-regime MFQs (MRMFQ). We propose a framework for approximating CFMFQs by MRMFQs via discretizing the buffer space. The parameters of the CFMFQ are approximated by piecewise constant functions. Then, the solution is obtained by block-tridiagonal LU decomposition for the related MRMFQ. Moreover, we describe a numerical method that enables us to solve large scale systems efficiently. We model basically two different stochastic systems with CFMFQs. The first is the workload-bounded MAP/PH/1 queue, to which the arrivals occur according to a workload-dependent MAP (Markovian Arrival Process), and the arriving job size distribution is phase-type. The jobs that would cause the buffer to overflow are rejected partially or completely. Also, the service speed is allowed to depend on the buffer level. As the second application, we model the horizon-based delayed reservation mechanism in Optical Burst Switching networks with or without fiber delay lines. We allow multiple traffic classes and the effect of offset-based and FDL-based differentiation among traffic classes in terms of burst blocking is investigated. Lastly, we propose a distributed algorithm for air-time fairness in multi-rate WLANs that overcomes the performance anomaly in IEEE 802.11 WLANs. We also give a stochastic model of the proposed model, and provide a novel and elaborate proof for its effectiveness. We also present an extensive simulation study.Yazıcı, Mehmet AkifPh.D