Effective video multicast over wireless internet

With the rapid growth of wireless networks and great success of Internet video, wireless video services are expected to be widely deployed in the near future. As different types of wireless networks are converging into all IP networks, i.e., the Internet, it is important to study video delivery over the wireless Internet. This paper proposes a novel end-system based adaptation protocol calledWireless Hybrid Adaptation Layered Multicast (WHALM) protocol for layered video multicast over wireless Internet. In WHALM the sender dynamically collects bandwidth distribution from the receivers and uses an optimal layer rate allocation mechanism to reduce the mismatches between the coarse-grained layer subscription levels and the heterogeneous and dynamic rate requirements from the receivers, thus maximizing the degree of satisfaction of all the receivers in a multicast session. Based on sampling theory and theory of probability, we reduce the required number of bandwidth feedbacks to a reasonable degree and use a scalable feedback mechanism to control the feedback process practically. WHALM is also tuned to perform well in wireless networks by integrating an end-to-end loss differentiation algorithm (LDA) to differentiate error losses from congestion losses at the receiver side. With a series of simulation experiments over NS platform, WHALM has been proved to be able to greatly improve the degree of satisfaction of all the receivers while avoiding congestion collapse on the wireless Internet

TCP performance enhancement in wireless networks via adaptive congestion control and active queue management

The transmission control protocol (TCP) exhibits poor performance when used in error-prone wireless networks. Remedy to this problem has been an active research area. However, a widely accepted and adopted solution is yet to emerge. Difficulties of an acceptable solution lie in the areas of compatibility, scalability, computational complexity and the involvement of intermediate routers and switches. This dissertation rexriews the current start-of-the-art solutions to TCP performance enhancement, and pursues an end-to-end solution framework to the problem. The most noticeable cause of the performance degradation of TCP in wireless networks is the higher packet loss rate as compared to that in traditional wired networks. Packet loss type differentiation has been the focus of many proposed TCP performance enhancement schemes. Studies conduced by this dissertation research suggest that besides the standard TCP\u27s inability of discriminating congestion packet losses from losses related to wireless link errors, the standard TCP\u27s additive increase and multiplicative decrease (AIMD) congestion control algorithm itself needs to be redesigned to achieve better performance in wireless, and particularly, high-speed wireless networks. This dissertation proposes a simple, efficient, and effective end-to-end solution framework that enhances TCP\u27s performance through techniques of adaptive congestion control and active queue management. By end-to-end, it means a solution with no requirement of routers being wireless-aware or wireless-specific . TCP-Jersey has been introduced as an implementation of the proposed solution framework, and its performance metrics have been evaluated through extensive simulations. TCP-Jersey consists of an adaptive congestion control algorithm at the source by means of the source\u27s achievable rate estimation (ARE) —an adaptive filter of packet inter-arrival times, a congestion indication algorithm at the links (i.e., AQM) by means of packet marking, and a effective loss differentiation algorithm at the source by careful examination of the congestion marks carried by the duplicate acknowledgment packets (DUPACK). Several improvements to the proposed TCP-Jersey have been investigated, including a more robust ARE algorithm, a less computationally intensive threshold marking algorithm as the AQM link algorithm, a more stable congestion indication function based on virtual capacity at the link, and performance results have been presented and analyzed via extensive simulations of various network configurations. Stability analysis of the proposed ARE-based additive increase and adaptive decrease (AJAD) congestion control algorithm has been conducted and the analytical results have been verified by simulations. Performance of TCP-Jersey has been compared to that of a perfect , but not practical, TCP scheme, and encouraging results have been observed. Finally the framework of the TCP-Jersey\u27s source algorithm has been extended and generalized for rate-based congestion control, as opposed to TCP\u27s window-based congestion control, to provide a design platform for applications, such as real-time multimedia, that do not use TCP as transport protocol yet do need to control network congestion as well as combat packet losses in wireless networks. In conclusion, the framework architecture presented in this dissertation that combines the adaptive congestion control and active queue management in solving the TCP performance degradation problem in wireless networks has been shown as a promising answer to the problem due to its simplistic design philosophy complete compatibility with the current TCP/IP and AQM practice, end-to-end architecture for scalability, and the high effectiveness and low computational overhead. The proposed implementation of the solution framework, namely TCP-Jersey is a modification of the standard TCP protocol rather than a completely new design of the transport protocol. It is an end-to-end approach to address the performance degradation problem since it does not require split mode connection establishment and maintenance using special wireless-aware software agents at the routers. The proposed solution also differs from other solutions that rely on the link layer error notifications for packet loss differentiation. The proposed solution is also unique among other proposed end-to-end solutions in that it differentiates packet losses attributed to wireless link errors from congestion induced packet losses directly from the explicit congestion indication marks in the DUPACK packets, rather than inferring the loss type based on packet delay or delay jitter as in many other proposed solutions; nor by undergoing a computationally expensive off-line training of a classification model (e.g., HMM), or a Bayesian estimation/detection process that requires estimations of a priori loss probability distributions of different loss types. The proposed solution is also scalable and fully compatible to the current practice in Internet congestion control and queue management, but with an additional function of loss type differentiation that effectively enhances TCP\u27s performance over error-prone wireless networks. Limitations of the proposed solution architecture and areas for future researches are also addressed

Mobile TFRC: a congestion control for WLANs

Based on an identification and evaluation of the subtle counterproductive interactions between the WLANs MAC layer and the transport layer, this paper shows a new approach towards congestion control for WLANs. We introduce a specialization of TFRC (MTFRC: Mobile TFRC), which is adapted to wireless access networks. This TFRC specialization requires only slight changes to the standard TFRC protocol. Simulation results show substantial improvements for applications over TFRC in scenarios where the bottleneck situates on the MAC layer of the mobile nodes

Building self-optimized communication systems based on applicative cross-layer information

This article proposes the Implicit Packet Meta Header(IPMH) as a standard method to compute and represent common QoS properties of the Application Data Units (ADU) of multimedia streams using legacy and proprietary streams’ headers (e.g. Real-time Transport Protocol headers). The use of IPMH by mechanisms located at different layers of the communication architecture will allow implementing fine per-packet selfoptimization of communication services regarding the actual application requirements. A case study showing how IPMH is used by error control mechanisms in the context of wireless networks is presented in order to demonstrate the feasibility and advantages of this approach

Distributed QoS Guarantees for Realtime Traffic in Ad Hoc Networks

In this paper, we propose a new cross-layer framework, named QPART ( QoS br>rotocol for Adhoc Realtime Traffic), which provides QoS guarantees to real-time multimedia applications for wireless ad hoc networks. By adapting the contention window sizes at the MAC layer, QPART schedules packets of flows according to their unique QoS requirements. QPART implements priority-based admission control and conflict resolution to ensure that the requirements of admitted realtime flows is smaller than the network capacity. The novelty of QPART is that it is robust to mobility and variances in channel capacity and imposes no control message overhead on the network

Cross-layer Loss Differentiation Algorithm to Improve TCP Performances in WLANs

International audienceLoss Differentiation Algorithms (LDA) are currently used to determine the cause of packet losses with an aim of improving TCP performance over wireless networks. In this work, we propose a cross-layer solution based on two LDA in order to classify the loss origin on an 802.11 link and then to react consequently. The first LDA scheme, acting at the MAC layer, allows differentiating losses due to signal failure caused by displacement or by noise from other loss types. Moreover, in case of signal failure, it adapts the behavior of the MAC layer to avoid a costly end-to-end TCP resolution. The objective of the second LDA scheme, which acts at the TCP layer, is to distinguish a loss due to interferences from those due to congestions and to adapt consequently the TCP behavior. The efficiency of each LDA scheme and of the whole cross-layer solution are then demonstrated through simulations

{EcnLD}, {ECN Loss Differentiation} to optimize the performance of transport protocols on wireless networks

International audienceOne major yet unsolved problem in wired-cum-wireless networks is the classification of losses, which can be due either to wireless temporary interferences or to network congestion. The transport protocol response to losses has to be different for these two cases. If the transmission uses existing protocols like TCP, the losses will always be classified as congestion losses by the data sender, causing reduced throughput. In wired networks, ECN (Explicit Congestion Notification) can be used to control the congestion through active queue management such as RED (Random Early Detection). It can also be used to resolve the transport protocol misreaction on wireless networks. This paper proposes a loss differentiation method (EcnLD), based on ECN signaling and RTT, and applied to TCPlike. TCPlike is one of the two current congestion controls present in the new transport protocol DCCP (Datagram Congestion Control Protocol). Our results indicate that EcnLD is a good approach to optimize congestion control and therefore increase the performance of transport protocols over wireless networks