A Survey of Medium Access Mechanisms for Providing QoS in Ad-Hoc Networks

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Cross-layer design of multi-hop wireless networks

MULTI -hop wireless networks are usually defined as a collection of nodes equipped with radio transmitters, which not only have the capability to communicate each other in a multi-hop fashion, but also to route each others’ data packets. The distributed nature of such networks makes them suitable for a variety of applications where there are no assumed reliable central entities, or controllers, and may significantly improve the scalability issues of conventional single-hop wireless networks. This Ph.D. dissertation mainly investigates two aspects of the research issues related to the efficient multi-hop wireless networks design, namely: (a) network protocols and (b) network management, both in cross-layer design paradigms to ensure the notion of service quality, such as quality of service (QoS) in wireless mesh networks (WMNs) for backhaul applications and quality of information (QoI) in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for sensing tasks. Throughout the presentation of this Ph.D. dissertation, different network settings are used as illustrative examples, however the proposed algorithms, methodologies, protocols, and models are not restricted in the considered networks, but rather have wide applicability. First, this dissertation proposes a cross-layer design framework integrating a distributed proportional-fair scheduler and a QoS routing algorithm, while using WMNs as an illustrative example. The proposed approach has significant performance gain compared with other network protocols. Second, this dissertation proposes a generic admission control methodology for any packet network, wired and wireless, by modeling the network as a black box, and using a generic mathematical 0. Abstract 3 function and Taylor expansion to capture the admission impact. Third, this dissertation further enhances the previous designs by proposing a negotiation process, to bridge the applications’ service quality demands and the resource management, while using WSNs as an illustrative example. This approach allows the negotiation among different service classes and WSN resource allocations to reach the optimal operational status. Finally, the guarantees of the service quality are extended to the environment of multiple, disconnected, mobile subnetworks, where the question of how to maintain communications using dynamically controlled, unmanned data ferries is investigated

Random Access Game and Medium Access Control Design

Motivated partially by a control-theoretic viewpoint, we propose a game-theoretic model, called random access game, for contention control. We characterize Nash equilibria of random access games, study their dynamics, and propose distributed algorithms (strategy evolutions) to achieve Nash equilibria. This provides a general analytical framework that is capable of modeling a large class of system-wide quality-of-service (QoS) models via the specification of per-node utility functions, in which system-wide fairness or service differentiation can be achieved in a distributed manner as long as each node executes a contention resolution algorithm that is designed to achieve the Nash equilibrium. We thus propose a novel medium access method derived from carrier sense multiple access/collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) according to distributed strategy update mechanism achieving the Nash equilibrium of random access game. We present a concrete medium access method that adapts to a continuous contention measure called conditional collision probability, stabilizes the network into a steady state that achieves optimal throughput with targeted fairness (or service differentiation), and can decouple contention control from handling failed transmissions. In addition to guiding medium access control design, the random access game model also provides an analytical framework to understand equilibrium and dynamic properties of different medium access protocols

Network emulation focusing on QoS-Oriented satellite communication

This chapter proposes network emulation basics and a complete case study of QoS-oriented Satellite Communication

Source Delay in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Source delay, the time a packet experiences in its source node, serves as a fundamental quantity for delay performance analysis in networks. However, the source delay performance in highly dynamic mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) is still largely unknown by now. This paper studies the source delay in MANETs based on a general packet dispatching scheme with dispatch limit $f$ (PD-$f$ for short), where a same packet will be dispatched out up to $f$ times by its source node such that packet dispatching process can be flexibly controlled through a proper setting of $f$. We first apply the Quasi-Birth-and-Death (QBD) theory to develop a theoretical framework to capture the complex packet dispatching process in PD-$f$ MANETs. With the help of the theoretical framework, we then derive the cumulative distribution function as well as mean and variance of the source delay in such networks. Finally, extensive simulation and theoretical results are provided to validate our source delay analysis and illustrate how source delay in MANETs are related to network parameters.Comment: 11page

Classification of Smart Home Applications’ Requirements for the MAC Layer

Abstract—Smart homes and Wireless Home Automation Networks (WHAN) face several challenges in terms of cost, scalability, reliability, delay, energy consumption and many others. Smart homes typically have huge number of communicating devices. Efficient management of network resources is a major challenge in such environments. This paper provides insights on how to improve the MAC layer in smart home networks to fulfil the requirements of the different smart home applications. It provides a classification of the different smart home applications and identifies the main requirements and challenges regarding the MAC layer in this environment. It also provides insights for MAC protocols designers by highlighting the main issues in designing MAC schemes for smart home environment. Based on the analysis, the paper highlights adaptability as the most critical and challenging feature for smart home MAC protocols

A critical analysis of research potential, challenges and future directives in industrial wireless sensor networks

In recent years, Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (IWSNs) have emerged as an important research theme with applications spanning a wide range of industries including automation, monitoring, process control, feedback systems and automotive. Wide scope of IWSNs applications ranging from small production units, large oil and gas industries to nuclear fission control, enables a fast-paced research in this field. Though IWSNs offer advantages of low cost, flexibility, scalability, self-healing, easy deployment and reformation, yet they pose certain limitations on available potential and introduce challenges on multiple fronts due to their susceptibility to highly complex and uncertain industrial environments. In this paper a detailed discussion on design objectives, challenges and solutions, for IWSNs, are presented. A careful evaluation of industrial systems, deadlines and possible hazards in industrial atmosphere are discussed. The paper also presents a thorough review of the existing standards and industrial protocols and gives a critical evaluation of potential of these standards and protocols along with a detailed discussion on available hardware platforms, specific industrial energy harvesting techniques and their capabilities. The paper lists main service providers for IWSNs solutions and gives insight of future trends and research gaps in the field of IWSNs

Network delay control through adaptive queue management

Timeliness in delivering packets for delay-sensitive applications is an important QoS (Quality of Service) measure in many systems, notably those that need to provide real-time performance. In such systems, if delay-sensitive traffic is delivered to the destination beyond the deadline, then the packets will be rendered useless and dropped after received at the destination. Bandwidth that is already scarce and shared between network nodes is wasted in relaying these expired packets. This thesis proposes that a deterministic per-hop delay can be achieved by using a dynamic queue threshold concept to bound delay of each node. A deterministic per-hop delay is a key component in guaranteeing a deterministic end-to-end delay. The research aims to develop a generic approach that can constrain network delay of delay-sensitive traffic in a dynamic network. Two adaptive queue management schemes, namely, DTH (Dynamic THreshold) and ADTH (Adaptive DTH) are proposed to realize the claim. Both DTH and ADTH use the dynamic threshold concept to constrain queuing delay so that bounded average queuing delay can be achieved for the former and bounded maximum nodal delay can be achieved for the latter. DTH is an analytical approach, which uses queuing theory with superposition of N MMBP-2 (Markov Modulated Bernoulli Process) arrival processes to obtain a mapping relationship between average queuing delay and an appropriate queuing threshold, for queue management. While ADTH is an measurement-based algorithmic approach that can respond to the time-varying link quality and network dynamics in wireless ad hoc networks to constrain network delay. It manages a queue based on system performance measurements and feedback of error measured against a target delay requirement. Numerical analysis and Matlab simulation have been carried out for DTH for the purposes of validation and performance analysis. While ADTH has been evaluated in NS-2 simulation and implemented in a multi-hop wireless ad hoc network testbed for performance analysis. Results show that DTH and ADTH can constrain network delay based on the specified delay requirements, with higher packet loss as a trade-off