Energy-efficient wireless communication

In this chapter we present an energy-efficient highly adaptive network interface architecture and a novel data link layer protocol for wireless networks that provides Quality of Service (QoS) support for diverse traffic types. Due to the dynamic nature of wireless networks, adaptations in bandwidth scheduling and error control are necessary to achieve energy efficiency and an acceptable quality of service. In our approach we apply adaptability through all layers of the protocol stack, and provide feedback to the applications. In this way the applications can adapt the data streams, and the network protocols can adapt the communication parameters

Design and analysis of scheduling algorithms for next generation broadband wireless access systems

Efficient utilization of network resources is a key goal for emerging Broadband Wireless Access Systems (BWAS). This is a complex goal to achieve due to the heterogeneous service nature and diverse Quality of Service (QoS) requirements of various applications that BWAS support. Packet scheduling is an important activity that affects BWAS QoS outcomes. This thesis proposes a new packet scheduling mechanism that improves QoS in mobile wireless networks which exploit IP as a transport technology for data transfer between BWAS base stations and mobile users at the radio transmission layer. In order to improve BWAS QoS the new packet algorithm makes changes at both the IP and the radio layers. The new packet scheduling algorithm exploits handoff priority scheduling principles and takes into account buffer occupancy and channel conditions. The packet scheduling mechanism also incorporates the concept of fairness. The algorithm also offers an opportunity to maximize the carriers’ revenue at various traffic situations. Performance results were obtained by computer simulation and compared to the well-known algorithms. Results show that by exploiting the new packet scheduling algorithm, the transport system is able to provide a low handoff packet drop rate, low packet forwarding rate, low packet delay, ensure fairness amongst the users of different services and generates higher revenue for the telecom carriers. Furthermore this research proposes a new and novel measure named “satisfaction factor to measure the efficacy of various scheduling schemes and finally this s research also proposes four performance measurements metric for NodeB’s of Next Generation Wireless Network

A Review on Provisioning Quality of Service of Wireless Telemedicine for E-Health Services

In general, on-line medical consultation reduces time required for medical consultation induces improvement in the quality and efficiency of healthcare services. All major types of current e-health applications such as ECG, X-ray, video, diagnosis images and other common applications have been included in the scope of the study. In addition, the provision of Quality of Service (QoS) for the application of specific healthcare services in e-health, the scheme of priority for e-health services and the support of QoS in wireless networks and techniques or methods for IEEE 802.11 to guarantee the provision of QoS has also been assessed. In e-health, medical services in remote locations such as rural healthcare centers, ambulances, ships as well as home healthcare services can be supported through the applications of e-health services such as medical databases, electronic health records and the routing of text, audio, video and images. Given this, an adaptive resource allocation for a wireless network with multiple service types and multiple priorities have been proposed. For the provision of an acceptable QoS level to users of e-health services, prioritization is an important criterion in a multi-traffic network. The requirement for QoS provisioning in wireless broadband medical networks have paved the pathway for bandwidth requirements and the real-time or live transmission of medical applications. From the study, good performance of the proposed scheme has been validated by the results obtained. The proposed wireless network is capable of handling medical applications for both normal and life-threatening conditions as characterized by the level of emergencies. In addition, the bandwidth allocation and admission control algorithm for IEEE 802.16- based design specifically for wireless telemedicine/e-health services have also been presented in the study. It has been concluded that under busy traffic conditions, the proposed architecture can used as a feasible and reliable infrastructure network for telemedicine

Delay analysis for wireless applications using a multiservice multiqueue processor sharing model

The ongoing development of wireless networks supporting multimedia applications requires service providers to efficiently deliver complex Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. The wide range of new applications in these networks significantly increases the difficulty of network design and dimensioning to meet QoS requirements. Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols affect QoS achieved by wireless networks. Research on analysis and performance evaluation is important for the efficient protocol design. As wireless networks feature scarce resources that are simultaneously shared by all users, processor sharing (PS) models were proposed for modelling resource sharing mechanisms in such systems. In this thesis, multi-priority MAC protocols are proposed for handling the various service traffic types. Then, an investigation of multiservice multiqueue PS models is undertaken to analyse the delay for some recently proposed wireless applications. We start with an introduction to MAC protocols for wireless networks which are specified in IEEE standards and then review scheduling algorithms which were proposed to work with the underlying MAC protocols to cooperatively achieve QoS goals. An overview of the relevant literature is given on PS models for performance analysis and evaluation of scheduling algorithms. We propose a multiservice multiqueue PS model using a scheduling scheme in multimedia wireless networks with a comprehensive description of the analytical solution. Firstly, we describe the existing multiqueue processor sharing (MPS) model, which uses a fixed service quantum at each queue, and correct a subtle incongruity in previous solutions presented in the literature. Secondly, a new scheduling framework is proposed to extend the previous MPS model to a general case. This newly proposed analytical approach is based on the idea that the service quantum arranged by a MAC scheduling controller to service data units can be priority-based. We obtain a closed-form expression for the mean delay of each service class in this model. In summary, our new approach simplifies MAC protocols for multimedia applications into an analytical model that includes more complex and realistic traffic models without compromising details of the protocol and significantly reduces the number of MAC headers, thus the overall average delay will be decreased. In response to using the studied multiservice multiqueue PS models, we apply the MPS model to two wireless applications: Push to Talk (PTT) service over GPRS/GSM networks and the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) networks. We investigate the uplink delay of PTT over traditional GPRS/GSM networks and the uplink delay for WiMAX Subscriber Station scheduler under a priority-based fair scheduling. MAC structures capable of supporting dynamically varying traffic are studied for the networks, especially, with the consideration of implementation issues. The model provides useful insights into the dynamic performance behaviours of GPRS/GSM and WiMAX networks with respect to various system parameters and comprehensive traffic conditions. We then evaluate the model under some different practical traffic scenarios. Through modelling of the operation of wireless access systems, under a variety of multimedia traffic, our analytical approaches provide practical analysis guidelines for wireless network dimensioning

Cross-layer RaCM design for vertically integrated wireless networks

Includes bibliographical references (p. 70-74).Wireless local and metropolitan area network (WLAN/WMAN) technologies, more specifically IEEE 802.11 (or wireless fidelity, WiFi) and IEEE 802.16 (or wireless interoperability for microwave access, WiMAX), are well-suited to enterprise networking since wireless offers the advantages of rapid deployment in places that are difficult to wire. However, these networking standards are relatively young with respect to their traditional mature high-speed low-latency fixed-line networking counterparts. It is more challenging for the network provider to supply the necessary quality of service (QoS) to support the variety of existing multimedia services over wireless technology. Wireless communication is also unreliable in nature, making the provisioning of agreed QoS even more challenging. Considering the advantages and disadvantages, wireless networks prove well-suited to connecting rural areas to the Internet or as a networking solution for areas that are difficult to wire. The focus of this study specifically pertains to IEEE 802.16 and the part it plays in an IEEE vertically integrated wireless Internet (WIN): IEEE 802.16 is a wireless broadband backhaul technology, capable of connecting local area networks (LANs), wireless or fixed-line, to the Internet via a high-speed fixed-line link

Inferring Queueing Network Models from High-precision Location Tracking Data

Stochastic performance models are widely used to analyse the performance and reliability of systems that involve the flow and processing of customers. However, traditional methods of constructing a performance model are typically manual, time-consuming, intrusive and labour-intensive. The limited amount and low quality of manually-collected data often lead to an inaccurate picture of customer flows and poor estimates of model parameters. Driven by advances in wireless sensor technologies, recent real-time location systems (RTLSs) enable the automatic, continuous and unintrusive collection of high-precision location tracking data, in both indoor and outdoor environment. This high-quality data provides an ideal basis for the construction of high-fidelity performance models. This thesis presents a four-stage data processing pipeline which takes as input high-precision location tracking data and automatically constructs a queueing network performance model approximating the underlying system. The first two stages transform raw location traces into high-level “event logs” recording when and for how long a customer entity requests service from a server entity. The third stage infers the customer flow structure and extracts samples of time delays involved in the system; including service time, customer interarrival time and customer travelling time. The fourth stage parameterises the service process and customer arrival process of the final output queueing network model. To collect large-enough location traces for the purpose of inference by conducting physical experiments is expensive, labour-intensive and time-consuming. We thus developed LocTrack- JINQS, an open-source simulation library for constructing simulations with location awareness and generating synthetic location tracking data. Finally we examine the effectiveness of the data processing pipeline through four case studies based on both synthetic and real location tracking data. The results show that the methodology performs with moderate success in inferring multi-class queueing networks composed of single-server queues with FIFO, LIFO and priority-based service disciplines; it is also capable of inferring different routing policies, including simple probabilistic routing, class-based routing and shortest-queue routing

Towards Real-time Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks are poised to change the way computer systems interact with the physical world. We plan on entrusting sensor systems to collect medical data from patients, monitor the safety of our infrastructure, and control manufacturing processes in our factories. To date, the focus of the sensor network community has been on developing best-effort services. This approach is insufficient for many applications since it does not enable developers to determine if a system\u27s requirements in terms of communication latency, bandwidth utilization, reliability, or energy consumption are met. The focus of this thesis is to develop real-time network support for such critical applications. The first part of the thesis focuses on developing a power management solution for the radio subsystem which addresses both the problem of idle-listening and power control. In contrast to traditional power management solutions which focus solely on reducing energy consumption, the distinguishing feature of our approach is that it achieves both energy efficiency and real-time communication. A solution to the idle-listening problem is proposed in Energy Efficient Sleep Scheduling based on Application Semantics: ESSAT). The novelty of ESSAT lies in that it takes advantage of the common features of data collection applications to determine when to turn on and off a node\u27s radio without affecting real-time performance. A solution to the power control problem is proposed in Real-time Power Aware-Routing: RPAR). RPAR tunes the transmission power for each packet based on its deadline such that energy is saved without missing packet deadlines. The main theoretical contribution of this thesis is the development of novel transmission scheduling techniques optimized for data collection applications. This work bridges the gap between wireless sensor networks and real-time scheduling theory, which have traditionally been applied to processor scheduling. The proposed approach has significant advantages over existing design methodologies:: 1) it provides predictable performance allowing for the performance of a system to be estimated upon its deployment,: 2) it is possible to detect and handle overload conditions through simple rate control mechanisms, and: 3) it easily accommodates workload changes. I developed this framework under a realistic interference model by coordinating the activities at the MAC, link, and routing layers. The last component of this thesis focuses on the development of a real-time patient monitoring system for general hospital units. The system is designed to facilitate the detection of clinical deterioration, which is a key factor in saving lives and reducing healthcare costs. Since patients in general hospital wards are often ambulatory, a key challenge is to achieve high reliability even in the presence of mobility. To support patient mobility, I developed the Dynamic Relay Association Protocol -- a simple and effective mechanism for dynamically discovering the right relays for forwarding patient data -- and a Radio Mapping Tool -- a practical tool for ensuring network coverage in 802.15.4 networks. We show that it is feasible to use low-power and low-cost wireless sensor networks for clinical monitoring through an in-depth clinical study. The study was performed in a step-down cardiac care unit at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. This is the first long-term study of such a patient monitoring system

Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Guiding readers through the basics of these rapidly emerging networks to more advanced concepts and future expectations, Mobile Ad hoc Networks: Current Status and Future Trends identifies and examines the most pressing research issues in Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs). Containing the contributions of leading researchers, industry professionals, and academics, this forward-looking reference provides an authoritative perspective of the state of the art in MANETs. The book includes surveys of recent publications that investigate key areas of interest such as limited resources and the mobility of mobile nodes. It considers routing, multicast, energy, security, channel assignment, and ensuring quality of service. Also suitable as a text for graduate students, the book is organized into three sections: Fundamentals of MANET Modeling and Simulation—Describes how MANETs operate and perform through simulations and models Communication Protocols of MANETs—Presents cutting-edge research on key issues, including MAC layer issues and routing in high mobility Future Networks Inspired By MANETs—Tackles open research issues and emerging trends Illustrating the role MANETs are likely to play in future networks, this book supplies the foundation and insight you will need to make your own contributions to the field. It includes coverage of routing protocols, modeling and simulations tools, intelligent optimization techniques to multicriteria routing, security issues in FHAMIPv6, connecting moving smart objects to the Internet, underwater sensor networks, wireless mesh network architecture and protocols, adaptive routing provision using Bayesian inference, and adaptive flow control in transport layer using genetic algorithms