Performance Optimization and Dynamics Control for Large-scale Data Transfer in Wide-area Networks

Transport control plays an important role in the performance of large-scale scientific and media streaming applications involving transfer of large data sets, media streaming, online computational steering, interactive visualization, and remote instrument control. In general, these applications have two distinctive classes of transport requirements: large-scale scientific applications require high bandwidths to move bulk data across wide-area networks, while media streaming applications require stable bandwidths to ensure smooth media playback. Unfortunately, the widely deployed Transmission Control Protocol is inadequate for such tasks due to its performance limitations. The purpose of this dissertation is to conduct rigorous analytical study of the design and performance of transport solutions, and develop an integrated transport solution in a systematical way to overcome the limitations of current transport methods. One of the primary challenges is to explore and compose a set of feasible route options with multiple constraints. Another challenge essentially arises from the randomness inherent in wide-area networks, particularly the Internet. This randomness must be explicitly accounted for to achieve both goodput maximization and stabilization over the constructed routes by suitably adjusting the source rate in response to both network and host dynamics.The superior and robust performance of the proposed transport solution is extensively evaluated in a simulated environment and further verified through real-life implementations and deployments over both Internet and dedicated connections under disparate network conditions in comparison with existing transport methods

Design and implementation of simulation tools, protocols and architectures to support service platforms on vehicular networks

Tesis por compendioProducts related with Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are becoming a reality on our roads. All car manufacturers are starting to include Internet access in their vehicles and to integrate smartphones directly from the dashboard, but more and more services will be introduced in the near future. Connectivity through "vehicular networks" will become a cornerstone of every new proposal, and offering an adequate quality of service is obviously desirable. However, a lot of work is needed for vehicular networks to offer performances similar to those of the wired networks. Vehicular networks can be characterized by two main features: high variability due to mobility levels that can reach up to 250 kilometers per hour, and heterogeneity, being that various competing versions from different vendors have and will be released. Therefore, to make the deployment of efficient services possible, an extensive study must be carried out and adequate tools must be proposed and developed. This PhD thesis addresses the service deployment problem in these networks at three different levels: (i) the physical and link layer, showing an exhaustive analysis of the physical channel and models; (ii) the network layer, proposing a forwarding protocol for IP packets; and (iii) the transport layer, where protocols are proposed to improve data delivery. First of all, the two main wireless technologies used in vehicular networks where studied and modeled, namely the 802.11 family of standards, particularly 802.11p, and the cellular networks focusing on LTE. Since 802.11p is a quite mature standard, we defined (i) a propagation and attenuation model capable of replicating the transmission range and the fading behavior of real 802.11p devices, both in line-of-sight conditions and when obstructed by small obstacles, and (ii) a visibility model able to deal with large obstacles, such as buildings and houses, in a realistic manner. Additionally, we proposed a model based on high-level performance indicators (bandwidth and delay) for LTE, which makes application validation and evaluation easier. At the network layer, a hybrid protocol called AVE is proposed for packet forwarding by switching among a set of standard routing strategies. Depending on the specific scenario, AVE selects one out of four different routing solutions: a) two-hop direct delivery, b) Dynamic MANET On-demand (DYMO), c) greedy georouting, and d) store-carry-and-forward technique, to dynamically adapt its behavior to the specific situation. At the transport layer, we proposed a content delivery protocol for reliable and bidirectional unicast communication in lossy links that improves content delivery in situations where the wireless network is the bottleneck. It has been designed, validated, optimized, and its performance has been analyzed in terms of throughput and resource efficiency. Finally, at system level, we propose an edge-assisted computing model that allows reducing the response latency of several queries by placing a computing unit at the network edge. This way, traffic traversal through the Internet is avoided when not needed. This scheme could be used in both 802.11p and cellular networks, and in this thesis we decided to focus on its evaluation using LTE networks. The platform presented in this thesis combines all the individual efforts to create a single efficient platform. This new environment could be used by any provider to improve the quality of the user experience obtainable through the proposed vehicular network-based services.Los productos relacionados con los Sistemas Inteligentes de Transporte (ITS) se están transformando en una realidad en nuestras carreteras. Todos los fabricantes de coches comienzan a incluir acceso a internet en sus vehículos y a facilitar su integración con los teléfonos móviles, pero más y más servicios se introducirán en el futuro. La conectividad usando las "redes vehiculares" se convertirá en la piedra angular de cada nueva propuesta, y ofrecer una calidad de servicio adecuada será, obviamente, deseable. Sin embargo, se necesita una gran cantidad de trabajo para que las redes vehiculares ofrezcan un rendimiento similar al de las redes cableadas. Las redes vehiculares quedan definidas por sus dos características básicas: alto dinamismo, pues los nodos pueden alcanzar una velocidad relativa de más de 250 km/h; y heterogeneidad, por la gran cantidad de propuestas diferentes que los fabricantes están lanzando al mercado. Por ello, para hacer posible el despliegue de servicios sobre ellas, se impone la necesidad de hacer un estudio en profundidad de este entorno, y deben de proponerse y desarrollarse las herramientas adecuadas. Esta tesis ataca la problemática del despliegue de servicios en estas redes a tres niveles diferentes: (i) el nivel físico y de enlace, mostrando varios análisis en profundidad del medio físico y modelos derivados para su simulación; (ii) el nivel de red, proponiendo un protocolo de difusión de la información para los paquetes IP; y (iii) el nivel de transporte, donde otros protocolos son propuestos para mejorar el rendimiento del transporte de datos. En primer lugar, se han estudiado y modelado las dos principales tecnologías inalámbricas que se utilizan para la comunicación en redes vehiculares, la rama de estándares 802.11, en concreto 802.11p; y la comunicación celular, en particular LTE. Dado que el estándar 802.11p es un estándar bastante maduro, nos centramos en crear (i) un modelo de propagación y atenuación capaz de replicar el rango de transmisión de dispositivos 802.11p reales, en condiciones de visión directa y obstrucción por pequeños obstáculos, y (ii) un modelo de visibilidad capaz de simular el efecto de grandes obstáculos, como son los edifcios, de una manera realista. Además, proponemos un modelo basado en indicadores de rendimiento de alto nivel (ancho de banda y retardo) para LTE, que facilita la validación y evaluación de aplicaciones. En el plano de red, se propone un protocolo híbrido, llamado AVE, para el encaminamiento y reenvío de paquetes usando un conjunto de estrategias estándar de enrutamiento. Dependiendo del escenario, AVE elige entre cuatro estrategias diferentes: a) entrega directa a dos saltos, b) Dynamic MANET On-demand (DYMO) c) georouting voraz, y d) una técnica store-carry-and- forward, para adaptar su comportamiento dinámicamente a cada situación. En el plano de transporte, se propone un protocolo bidireccional de distribución de contenidos en canales con pérdidas que mejora la entrega de contenidos en situaciones en las que la red es un cuello de botella, como las redes inalámbricas. Ha sido diseñado, validado, optimizado, y su rendimiento ha sido analizado en términos de productividad y eficiencia en la utilización de recursos. Finalmente, a nivel de sistema, proponemos un modelo de computación asistida que permite reducir la latencia en la respuesta a muchas consultas colocando una unidad de computación en el borde de la red, i.e., la red de acceso. Este esquema podría ser usado en redes basadas en 802.11p y en redes celulares, si bien en esta tesis decidimos centrarnos en su evaluación usando redes LTE. La plataforma presentada en esta tesis combina todos los esfuerzos individuales para crear una plataforma única y eficiente. Este nuevo entorno puede ser usado por cualquier proveedor para mejorar la calidad de la experiencia de usuario en los servicios desplegados sobre redes vehiculares.Els productes relacionats amb els sistemes intel · ligents de transport (ITS) s'estan transformant en una realitat en les nostres carreteres. Tots els fabri- cants de cotxes comencen a incloure accés a internet en els vehicles i a facilitar- ne la integració amb els telèfons mòbils, però en el futur més i més serveis s'hi introduiran. La connectivitat usant les xarxes vehicular esdevindrà la pedra angular de cada nova proposta, i oferir una qualitat de servei adequada serà, òbviament, desitjable. No obstant això, es necessita una gran quantitat de treball perquè les xarxes vehiculars oferisquen un rendiment similar al de les xarxes cablejades. Les xarxes vehiculars queden definides per dues característiques bàsiques: alt dinamisme, ja que els nodes poden arribar a una velocitat relativa de més de 250 km/h; i heterogeneïtat, per la gran quantitat de propostes diferents que els fabricants estan llançant al mercat. Per això, per a fer possible el desplegament de serveis sobre aquestes xarxes, s'imposa la necessitat de fer un estudi en profunditat d'aquest entorn, i cal proposar i desenvolupar les eines adequades. Aquesta tesi ataca la problemàtica del desplegament de serveis en aquestes xarxes a tres nivells diferents: (i) el nivell físic i d'enllaç , mostrant diverses anàlisis en profunditat del medi físic i models derivats per simular-lo; (ii) el nivell de xarxa, proposant un protocol de difusió de la informació per als paquets IP; i (iii) el nivell de transport, on es proposen altres protocols per a millorar el rendiment del transport de dades. En primer lloc, s'han estudiat i modelat les dues principals tecnologies sense fils que s'utilitzen per a la comunicació en xarxes vehiculars, la branca d'estàndards 802.11, en concret 802.11p; i la comunicació cel · lular, en partic- ular LTE. Atès que l'estàndard 802.11p és un estàndard bastant madur, ens centrem a crear (i) un model de propagació i atenuació capaç de replicar el rang de transmissió de dispositius 802.11p reals, en condicions de visió directa i obstrucció per petits obstacles, i (ii) un model de visibilitat capaç de simular l'efecte de grans obstacles, com són els edificis, d'una manera realista. A més, proposem un model basat en indicadors de rendiment d'alt nivell (ample de banda i retard) per a LTE, que facilita la validació i l'avaluació d'aplicacions. En el pla de xarxa, es proposa un protocol híbrid, anomenat AVE, per a l'encaminament i el reenviament de paquets usant un conjunt d'estratègies estàndard d'encaminament. Depenent de l'escenari , AVE tria entre quatre estratègies diferents: a) lliurament directe a dos salts, b) Dynamic MANET On-demand (DYMO) c) georouting voraç, i d) una tècnica store-carry-and- forward, per a adaptar-ne el comportament dinàmicament a cada situació. En el pla de transport, es proposa un protocol bidireccional de distribució de continguts en canals amb pèrdues que millora el lliurament de continguts en situacions en què la xarxa és un coll de botella, com les xarxes sense fils. Ha sigut dissenyat, validat, optimitzat, i el seu rendiment ha sigut analitzat en termes de productivitat i eficiència en la utilització de recursos. Finalment, a nivell de sistema, proposem un model de computació assistida que permet reduir la latència en la resposta a moltes consultes col · locant una unitat de computació a la vora de la xarxa, és a dir, la xarxa d'accés. Aquest esquema podria ser usat en xarxes basades en 802.11p i en xarxes cel · lulars, si bé en aquesta tesi decidim centrar-nos en la seua avaluació usant xarxes LTE. La plataforma presentada en aquesta tesi combina tots els esforços indi- viduals per a crear una plataforma única i eficient. Aquest nou entorn pot ser usat per qualsevol proveïdor per a millorar la qualitat de l'experiència d'usuari en els serveis desplegats sobre xarxes vehiculars.Báguena Albaladejo, M. (2017). Design and implementation of simulation tools, protocols and architectures to support service platforms on vehicular networks [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/85333TESISCompendi

Enabling Multipath and Multicast Data Transmission in Legacy and Future Internet

The quickly growing community of Internet users is requesting multiple applications and services. At the same time the structure of the network is changing. From the performance point of view, there is a tight interplay between the application and the network design. The network must be constructed to provide an adequate performance of the target application. In this thesis we consider how to improve the quality of users' experience concentrating on two popular and resource-consuming applications: bulk data transfer and real-time video streaming. We share our view on the techniques which enable feasibility and deployability of the network functionality leading to unquestionable performance improvement for the corresponding applications. Modern mobile devices, equipped with several network interfaces, as well as multihomed residential Internet hosts are capable of maintaining multiple simultaneous attachments to the network. We propose to enable simultaneous multipath data transmission in order to increase throughput and speed up such bandwidth-demanding applications as, for example, file download. We design an extension for Host Identity Protocol (mHIP), and propose a multipath data scheduling solution on a wedge layer between IP and transport, which effectively distributes packets from a TCP connection over available paths. We support our protocol with a congestion control scheme and prove its ability to compete in a friendly manner against the legacy network protocols. Moreover, applying game-theoretic analytical modelling we investigate how the multihomed HIP multipath-enabled hosts coexist in the shared network. The number of real-time applications grows quickly. Efficient and reliable transport of multimedia content is a critical issue of today's IP network design. In this thesis we solve scalability issues of the multicast dissemination trees controlled by the hybrid error correction. We propose a scalable multicast architecture for potentially large overlay networks. Our techniques address suboptimality of the adaptive hybrid error correction (AHEC) scheme in the multicast scenarios. A hierarchical multi-stage multicast tree topology is constructed in order to improve the performance of AHEC and guarantee QoS for the multicast clients. We choose an evolutionary networking approach that has the potential to lower the required resources for multimedia applications by utilizing the error-correction domain separation paradigm in combination with selective insertion of the supplementary data from parallel networks, when the corresponding content is available. Clearly both multipath data transmission and multicast content dissemination are the future Internet trends. We study multiple problems related to the deployment of these methods.Internetin nopeasti kasvava käyttäjäkunta vaatii verkolta yhä enemmän sovelluksia ja palveluita. Samaan aikaan verkon rakenne muuttuu. Suorituskyvyn näkökulmasta on olemassa selvä vuorovaikutussovellusten ja verkon suunnittelun välillä. Verkko on rakennettava siten, että se pystyy takaamaan riittävän suorituskyvyn halutuille palveluille. Tässä väitöskirjassa pohditaan, miten verkon käyttökokemusta voidaan parantaa keskittyen kahteen suosittuun ja resursseja vaativaan sovellukseen: tiedonsiirtoon ja reaaliaikaiseen videon suoratoistoon. Esitämme näkemyksemme tekniikoista, jotka mahdollistavat tarvittavien verkkotoiminnallisuuksien helpon toteuttavuuden sekä kiistatta parantavat sovelluksien suorityskykyä. Nykyaikaiset mobiililaitteet monine verkkoyhteyksineen, kuten myös kotitietokoneet, pystyvät ylläpitämään monta internet-yhteyttä samanaikaisesti. Siksi ehdotamme monikanavaisen tiedonsiirron käyttöä suorituskyvyn parantamiseksi ja etenkin vaativien verkkosovelluksien, kuten tiedostonsiirron, nopeuttamiseksi. Tässä väitöskirjassa suunnitellaan Host Identity Protocol (mHIP) -laajennus, sekä esitetään tiedonsiirron vuorotteluratkaisu, joka hajauttaa TCP-yhteyden tiedonsiirtopaketit käytettävissä oleville kanaville. Protokollamme tueksi luomme myös ruuhkautumishallinta-algoritmin ja näytämme sen pystyvän toimimaan yhteen nykyisien verkkoprotokollien kanssa. Tämän lisäksi tutkimme peliteoreettista mallinnusta käyttäen, miten monikanavaiset HIP-verkkopäätteet toimivat muiden kanssa jaetuissa verkoissa. Reaaliaikaisten sovellusten määrä kasvaa nopeasti. Tehokas ja luotettava multimediasisällön siirto on olennainen vaatimus nykypäivän IP-verkoissa. Tässä työssä ratkaistaan monilähetyksen (multicast) jakelustruktuurin skaalautuvuuteen liittyviä ongelmia. Ehdotamme skaalautuvaa monilähetysarkkitehtuuria suurille peiteverkoille. Ratkaisumme puuttuu adaptiivisen virhekorjauksen (Adaptive Hybrid Error Correction, AHEC) alioptimaalisuuteen monilähetystilanteissa. Luomme hierarkisen monivaiheisen monilähetyspuutopologian parantaaksemme AHECin suorituskykyä, sekä taataksemme monilähetysasiakkaiden palvelun laadun. Valitsimme evoluutiomaisen lähestymistavan, jolla on potentiaalia keventää multimediasovelluksien verkkoresurssivaatimuksia erottamalla virhekorjauksen omaksi verkkotunnuksekseen, sekä käyttämällä valikoivaa täydentävää tiedonlisäystä rinnakkaisverkoista vastaavan sisällön ollessa saatavilla. Sekä monikanava- että monilähetystiedonsiirto ovat selvästi osa internetin kehityssuuntaa. Tässä väitöskirjassa tutkimme monia ongelmia näiden tekniikoiden käyttöönottoon liittyen

Dynamic adaptive video streaming with minimal buffer sizes

Recently, adaptive streaming has been widely adopted in video streaming services to improve the Quality-of-Experience (QoE) of video delivery over the Internet. However, state-of-the-art bitrate adaptation achieves satisfactory performance only with extensive buffering of several tens of seconds. This leads to high playback latency in video delivery, which is undesirable especially in the context of live content with a low upper bound on the latency. Therefore, this thesis aims at pushing the application of adaptive streaming to its limit with respect to the buffer size, which is the dominant factor of the streaming latency. In this work, we first address the minimum buffering size required in adaptive streaming, which provides us with guidelines to determine a reasonable low latency for streaming systems. Then, we tackle the fundamental challenge of achieving such a low-latency streaming by developing a novel adaptation algorithm that stabilizes buffer dynamics despite a small buffer size. We also present advanced improvements by designing a novel adaptation architecture with low-delay feedback for the bitrate selection and optimizing the underlying transport layer to offer efficient realtime streaming. Experimental evaluations demonstrate that our approach achieves superior QoE in adaptive video streaming, especially in the particularly challenging case of low-latency streaming.In letzter Zeit setzen immer mehr Anbieter von Video-Streaming im Internet auf adaptives Streaming um die Nutzererfahrung (QoE) zu verbessern. Allerdings erreichen aktuelle Bitrate-Adaption-Algorithmen nur dann eine zufriedenstellende Leistung, wenn sehr große Puffer in der Größenordnung von mehreren zehn Sekunden eingesetzt werden. Dies führt zu großen Latenzen bei der Wiedergabe, was vor allem bei Live-Übertragungen mit einer niedrigen Obergrenze für Verzögerungen unerwünscht ist. Aus diesem Grund zielt die vorliegende Dissertation darauf ab adaptive Streaming-Anwendung im Bezug auf die Puffer-Größe zu optimieren da dies den Hauptfaktor für die Streaming-Latenz darstellt. In dieser Arbeit untersuchen wir zuerst die minimale benötigte Puffer-Größe für adaptives Streaming, was uns ermöglicht eine sinnvolle Untergrenze für die erreichbare Latenz festzulegen. Im nächsten Schritt gehen wir die grundlegende Herausforderung an dieses Optimum zu erreichen. Hierfür entwickeln wir einen neuartigen Adaptionsalgorithmus, der es ermöglicht den Füllstand des Puffers trotz der geringen Größe zu stabilisieren. Danach präsentieren wir weitere Verbesserungen indem wir eine neue Adaptions-Architektur für die Datenraten-Anpassung mit geringer Feedback-Verzögerung designen und das darunter liegende Transportprotokoll optimieren um effizientes Echtzeit-Streaming zu ermöglichen. Durch experimentelle Prüfung zeigen wir, dass unser Ansatz eine verbesserte Nutzererfahrung für adaptives Streaming erreicht, vor allem in besonders herausfordernden Fällen, wenn Streaming mit geringer Latenz gefordert ist

Radio Communications

In the last decades the restless evolution of information and communication technologies (ICT) brought to a deep transformation of our habits. The growth of the Internet and the advances in hardware and software implementations modified our way to communicate and to share information. In this book, an overview of the major issues faced today by researchers in the field of radio communications is given through 35 high quality chapters written by specialists working in universities and research centers all over the world. Various aspects will be deeply discussed: channel modeling, beamforming, multiple antennas, cooperative networks, opportunistic scheduling, advanced admission control, handover management, systems performance assessment, routing issues in mobility conditions, localization, web security. Advanced techniques for the radio resource management will be discussed both in single and multiple radio technologies; either in infrastructure, mesh or ad hoc networks

Avaliação de controlo de sessões multicast em redes com contexto

Mestrado em Engenharia Electrónica e TelecomunicaçõesOs utilizadores pretendem aceder, cada vez mais, a serviços multimédia com requisitos mais exigentes e personalizados. As limitações impostas pelos ambientes existentes (internet, 3G) para fornecer estes serviços levam à procura de melhores soluções, nomeadamente uma gestão eficaz das sessões multiparty. Neste tipo de soluções é normalmente utilizado o multicast, já que este permite reduzir os recursos utilizados, diminuindo o número de pacotes na rede. Contudo, o multicast não está consistente ao nível dos cenários de mobilidade, fundamentais nas redes de próxima geração. Actualmente existe uma vasta gama de tecnologias de acesso sem fios como WiFi, GPRS, UMTS e WiMAX. No futuro estas tecnologias diferentes complementar-se-ão convergindo numa infra-estrutura heterogénea capaz de fornecer um melhor serviço aos utilizadores, denominadas de redes 4G. A evolução dos terminais móveis também permitirá que estes se liguem simultaneamente a várias redes de acesso. Para uma melhor distribuição dos serviços dos utilizadores pelas redes de acesso disponíveis são necessários novos mecanismos de selecção. Uma nova selecção da rede baseada em informação de contexto (entidades e ambiente) tem tido grande relevo na comunidade científica. Assim, aplicações e rede reagem a alterações de contexto para uma melhor selecção da mesma. A dissertação apresentada encontra-se no âmbito do transporte multiparty com informação de contexto e reserva de recursos, permitindo a entrega do conteúdo de uma forma personalizada e com Qualidade de Serviço a vários utilizadores móveis, independentemente da tecnologia de acesso de cada um e da própria tecnologia da rede. Em suma, é utilizada uma arquitectura de rede baseada em informação de contexto e que reage eficazmente a alterações do mesmo. De forma a implementar a proposta apresentada recorreu-se à criação de várias entidades no simulador de redes NS-2. Os resultados foram obtidos usando diferentes cenários, avaliando a influência de cada parâmetro individualmente. Demonstrou-se que a arquitectura implementada permite suportar uma entrega dos conteúdos de uma maneira personalizada e independente da tecnologia utilizada. Obteve-se ainda uma boa gestão dos recursos da rede e uma melhoria na experiência percepcionada pelo utilizador através da selecção total da rede com base numa entidade de controlo central. A introdução do overlay de transporte multiparty melhora o comportamento geral da rede, minimizando as reconfigurações frequentes necessárias.Nowadays, more and more users want to access multimedia services with strong and personalized requirements. The limitations intrinsic to current environments (Internet and 3G) to provide this type of services motivate the research for an efficient management of multiparty sessions. The solution can also be based on multicast implementation, since it reduces resources utilization, decreasing the number of packets in the network. However, current multicast is not a strong solution in mobility scenarios, essential in next generation networks. Currently there is a wide range of wireless access technologies such as WiFi, GPRS, UMTS and WiMAX. In the future, these different technologies will converge in a complementary manner forming a heterogeneous infrastructure able to offer a better service to its users, usually named 4G. The evolution of mobile terminals will also allow them to connect simultaneously to several access networks. In order to a better distribution of the users services throughout available access networks, new selection mechanisms are required. A new network selection based on context information (entities and environments) is having a relevant role in scientific community. So, applications and networks react according to context changes, improving network selection. This Thesis is in the scope of context-aware multiparty transport with resources allocation, allowing the delivery of content in a personalized way with Quality of Service to several users, independently of the technology and the network. Resuming, the solution implements a context-aware network architecture that reacts efficiently to its changes. In order to implement this architecture, new entities were created in the network simulator NS-2. The results were obtained using different scenarios, evaluating the influence of each parameter independently. It was demonstrated that the integration of several components, allows a delivery of contents in a personalized manner and independently of the technology. The results showed a better management of the network resources and users experience, throughout the total network selection, based on a central control unit. The multiparty transport overlay improves the network behaviour, minimizing the necessary frequent reconfigurations