Scalable Video Streaming for Single-Hop Wireless Networks Using a Contention-Based Access MAC Protocol

Limited bandwidth and high packet loss rate pose a serious challenge for video streaming applications over wireless networks. Even when packet loss is not present, the bandwidth fluctuation, as a result of an arbitrary number of active flows in an IEEE 802.11 network, can significantly degrade the video quality. This paper aims to enhance the quality of video streaming applications in wireless home networks via a joint optimization of video layer-allocation technique, admission control algorithm, and medium access control (MAC) protocol. Using an Aloha-like MAC protocol, we propose a novel admission control framework, which can be viewed as an optimization problem that maximizes the average quality of admitted videos, given a specified minimum video quality for each flow. We present some hardness results for the optimization problem under various conditions and propose some heuristic algorithms for finding a good solution. In particular, we show that a simple greedy layer-allocation algorithm can perform reasonably well, although it is typically not optimal. Consequently, we present a more expensive heuristic algorithm that guarantees to approximate the optimal solution within a constant factor. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed framework can improve the video quality up to 26% as compared to those of the existing approaches

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF CROSS-LAYER DESIGN WITH DISTRIBUTED AND SEQUENTIAL MAPPING SCHEME FOR VIDEO APPLICATION OVER IEEE 802.11E

The rapid development of wireless communication imposes several challenges to support QoS for real-time multimedia applications such as video stream applications. Researchers tackled these challenges from different points of view including the semantics of the video to achieve better QoS requirements. The main goal of this research is to design a UDP protocol to realize a distributed sequential mapping scheme (DSM) with a cross-layer design and evaluate its accuracy under different network conditions. In DSM, the perceived quality of a multi-layer video is addressed by mapping each video layer into channel resources represented as queues or access categories (ACs) existing in IEEE 802.11e MAC layer. This research work further investigates the efficiency of this scheme with actual implementation and thorough simulation experiments. The experiments reported the efficiency of this scheme with the presence of different composite traffic models covering most known traffic scenarios using Expected Reconstructed Video Layers (ERVL) and packet loss rate as accuracy measures. This research work also investigates the accuracy of calculating the ERVL compared to its value using actual readings of layers drop rate. The effect of changing the ACs queue size on the ERVL is studied. The use of this scheme shows zero-drop in the base layer in almost all scenarios where no ongoing traffic is presented except that the testing video sessions between nodes. In these experiments, the ERVL continuously reported high values for the number of expected reconstructed video layers. While these values dramatically vary when introducing ongoing different composite traffic models together with the testing video sessions between nodes. Finally, a 40% increase in the ACs queue size shows significant improvement on ERVL while an increase of the queue size beyond this value has very little significance on ERVL

QoS based Radio Resource Management Techniques for Next Generation MU-MIMO WLANs: A Survey

IEEE 802.11 based Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) have emerged as a popular candidate that offers Internet services for wireless users. The demand of data traffic is increasing every day due to the increase in the use of multimedia applications, such as digital audio, video, and online gaming. With the inclusion of Physical Layer (PHY) technologies, such as the OFDM and MIMO, the current 802.11ac WLANs are claiming Gigabit speeds. Hence, the existing Medium Access Control (MAC) must be in a suitable position to convert the offered PHY data rates for efficient throughput. Further, the integration of cellular networks with WLANs requires unique changes at MAC layer. It is highly required to preserve the Quality of Service (QoS) in these scenarios. Fundamentally, many QoS issues arise from the problem of effective Radio Resource Management (RRM). Although IEEE 802.11 has lifted PHY layer aspects, there is a necessity to investigate MAC layer issues, such as resource utilization, scheduling, admission control and congestion control. In this survey, a literature overview of these techniques, namely the resource allocation and scheduling algorithms are briefly discussed in connection with the QoS at MAC layer. Further, some anticipated enhancements proposed for Multi-User Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output (MU-MIMO) WLANs are discussed

Cross-layer design and optimization of medium access control protocols for wlans

This thesis provides a contribution to the field of Medium Access Control (MAC) layer protocol design for wireless networks by proposing and evaluating mechanisms that enhance different aspects of the network performance. These enhancements are achieved through the exchange of information between different layers of the traditional protocol stack, a concept known as Cross-Layer (CL) design. The main thesis contributions are divided into two parts. The first part of the thesis introduces a novel MAC layer protocol named Distributed Queuing Collision Avoidance (DQCA). DQCA behaves as a reservation scheme that ensures collision-free data transmissions at the majority of the time and switches automatically to an Aloha-like random access mechanism when the traffic load is low. DQCA can be enriched by more advanced scheduling algorithms based on a CL dialogue between the MAC and other protocol layers, to provide higher throughput and Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees. The second part of the thesis explores a different challenge in MAC layer design, related to the ability of multiple antenna systems to offer point-to-multipoint communications. Some modifications to the recently approved IEEE 802.11n standard are proposed in order to handle simultaneous multiuser downlink transmissions. A number of multiuser MAC schemes that handle channel access and scheduling issues and provide mechanisms for feedback acquisition have been presented and evaluated. The obtained performance enhancements have been demonstrated with the help of both theoretical analysis and simulation obtained results

Final report on the evaluation of RRM/CRRM algorithms

Deliverable public del projecte EVERESTThis deliverable provides a definition and a complete evaluation of the RRM/CRRM algorithms selected in D11 and D15, and evolved and refined on an iterative process. The evaluation will be carried out by means of simulations using the simulators provided at D07, and D14.Preprin

Cognitive radio networks : quality of service considerations and enhancements

The explosive growth of wireless and mobile networks, such as the Internet of Things and 5G, has led to a massive number of devices that primarily use wireless channels within a limited range of the radio frequency spectrum (RFS). The use of RFS is heavily regulated, both nationally and internationally, and is divided into licensed and unlicensed bands. While many of the licensed wireless bands are underutilised, useable unlicensed bands are usually overcrowded, making the efficient use of RFS one of the critical challenges faced by future wireless communication technologies. The cognitive radio (CR) concept is proposed as a promising solution for the underutilisation of useful RFS bands. Fundamentally, CR technology is based on determining the unoccupied licensed RFS bands, called spectrum white spaces or holes, and accessing them to achieve better RFS utilisation and transmission propagation. The holes are the frequencies unused by the licensed user, or primary user (PU). Based on spectrum sensing, a CR node, or secondary user (SU), senses the surrounding spectrum periodically to detect any potential PU transmission in the current channel and to identify the available spectrum holes. Under current RFS regulations, SUs may use spectrum holes as long as their transmissions do not interfere with those of the PU. However, effective spectrum sensing can introduce overheads to a CR node operation. Such overheads affect the quality of service (QoS) of the running applications. Reducing the sensing impact on the QoS is one of the key challenges to adopting CR technology, and more studies of QoS issues related to implementing CR features are needed. This thesis aims to address these QoS issues in CR while considered the enhancement of RFS utilisation. This study concentrates on the spectrum sensing function, among other CR functions, because of its major impact on QoS and spectrum utilisation. Several spectrum sensing methods are reviewed to identify potential research gaps in analysing and addressing related QoS implications. It has been found that none of the well-known sensing techniques is suitable for all the diverse QoS requirements and RFS conditions: in fact, higher accuracy sensing methods cause a significant QoS degradation, as illustrated by several simulations in this work. For instance, QoS degradation caused by high-accuracy sensing has not yet been addressed in the IEEE 802.11e QoS mechanism used in the proposed CR standard, IEEE 802.11af (or White-Fi). This study finds that most of the strategies proposed to conduct sensing are based on a fixed sensing method that is not adaptable to the changeable nature of QoS requirements. In contrast, this work confirms the necessity of using various sensing techniques and parameters during a CR node operation for better performance