Understanding the performance of Internet video over residential networks

Video streaming applications are now commonplace among home Internet users, who typically access the Internet using DSL or Cable technologies. However, the effect of these technologies on video performance, in terms of degradations in video quality, is not well understood. To enable continued deployment of applications with improved quality of experience for home users, it is essential to understand the nature of network impairments and develop means to overcome them. In this dissertation, I demonstrate the type of network conditions experienced by Internet video traffic, by presenting a new dataset of the packet level performance of real-time streaming to residential Internet users. Then, I use these packet level traces to evaluate the performance of commonly used models for packet loss simulation, and finding the models to be insufficient, present a new type of model that more accurately captures the loss behaviour. Finally, to demonstrate how a better understanding of the network can improve video quality in a real application scenario, I evaluate the performance of forward error correction schemes for Internet video using the measurements. I show that performance can be poor, devise a new metric to predict performance of error recovery from the characteristics of the input, and validate that the new packet loss model allows more realistic simulations. For the effective deployment of Internet video systems to users of residential access networks, a firm understanding of these networks is required. This dissertation provides insights into the packet level characteristics that can be expected from such networks, and techniques to realistically simulate their behaviour, promoting development of future video applications

A Credit-based Home Access Point (CHAP) to Improve Application Quality on IEEE 802.11 Networks

Increasing availability of high-speed Internet and wireless access points has allowed home users to connect not only their computers but various other devices to the Internet. Every device running different applications requires unique Quality of Service (QoS). It has been shown that delay- sensitive applications, such as VoIP, remote login and online game sessions, suffer increased latency in the presence of throughput-sensitive applications such as FTP and P2P. Currently, there is no mechanism at the wireless AP to mitigate these effects except explicitly classifying the traffic based on port numbers or host IP addresses. We propose CHAP, a credit-based queue management technique, to eliminate the explicit configuration process and dynamically adjust the priority of all the flows from different devices to match their QoS requirements and wireless conditions to improve application quality in home networks. An analytical model is used to analyze the interaction between flows and credits and resulting queueing delays for packets. CHAP is evaluated using Network Simulator (NS2) under a wide range of conditions against First-In-First- Out (FIFO) and Strict Priority Queue (SPQ) scheduling algorithms. CHAP improves the quality of an online game, a VoIP session, a video streaming session, and a Web browsing activity by 20%, 3%, 93%, and 51%, respectively, compared to FIFO in the presence of an FTP download. CHAP provides these improvements similar to SPQ without an explicit classification of flows and a pre- configured scheduling policy. A Linux implementation of CHAP is used to evaluate its performance in a real residential network against FIFO. CHAP reduces the web response time by up to 85% compared to FIFO in the presence of a bulk file download. Our contributions include an analytic model for the credit-based queue management, simulation, and implementation of CHAP, which provides QoS with minimal configuration at the AP

Reducing Internet Latency : A Survey of Techniques and their Merit

Bob Briscoe, Anna Brunstrom, Andreas Petlund, David Hayes, David Ros, Ing-Jyh Tsang, Stein Gjessing, Gorry Fairhurst, Carsten Griwodz, Michael WelzlPeer reviewedPreprin

Le contrôle de congestion dans les applications Pair-à-Pair : le cas de LEDBAT

In the last years, Internet delays are considerably growing, causing a performance deterioration of interactive applications. This phenomenon is getting worse with the increasing popularity of bandwidth-intensive applications, as video streaming, remote backup and P2P systems. The cause of these delays has been identified with the excess buffering inside the network, called “bufferbloat”. Research efforts in this direction head toward active queue management techniques and end-to-end congestion control. In this context, we investigated LEDBAT, a low-priority delay-based transport protocol introduced by BitTorrent. This protocol is designed to transfer large amount of data without affecting the delay experienced by other applications or users. First we analysed transport-level performance of LEDBAT using experimental measurement, simulation and analytical model. Specifically, we evaluated LEDBAT as is, comparing its performance to standard TCP or to other low priority protocols. We then identified a later-comer advantage and we proposed fLEDBAT, which re-introduces intra-protocol fairness maintaining the original LEDBAT objectives. Finally we studied the impact of the LEDBAT protocol on BitTorrent performance. Through simulations and real network experiments, we analysed how BitTorrent impacts on the buffer occupancy of the access node. BitTorrent performance was evaluated in terms of completion time, the main metric to assess the user quality of experience. Results showed that LEDBAT decreases the completion time with respect to standard TCP and significantly reduces the buffer occupancy, that translates in lower delays experienced by competing interactive applications.Durant ces dernières années, les délais de transmission sur Internet ont augmenté de manière considérable, causant une détérioration de performances des applications interactives. La cause de ces augmentations de délais est l’excès de mémoire tampon à l’intérieur du réseau, appelé "bufferbloat". Les efforts de recherche dans cette direction vont vers des techniques de gestion des files d’attente actives et des techniques de contrôle de congestion de bout-à-bout. Dans ce contexte, nous avons examiné LEDBAT, un protocole introduit par BitTorrent qui se base sur le délai au niveau transport, et conçu pour transférer grandes quantités de données sans affecter les délais expérimentés par d’autres applications ou utilisateurs. Nous avons analysé la performance de niveau de transport de LEDBAT avec de mesures expérimentales, de simulations et de modèles analytiques, en comparant ses performances au standard TCP ou à d’autre protocoles de failbe priorité. Nous avons ensuite identifié un problème d’iniquité, et nous avons proposé fLEDBAT, qui ré-introduit l’équité intra-protocole. Dans un deuxième temps, nous avons étudié l’impact du protocole LEDBAT sur la performance de BitTorrent. Par des simulations et des expérimentations sur réseaux réelles, nous avons analysé les effets de LEDBAT sur le remplissage des tampons des noeuds d’accès. Les performances de BitTorrent ont été évaluées en termes de temps d’exécution, qui reflète la qualité de l’expérience utilisateur. Dans les deux cas, les résultats ont montré que LEDBAT diminue le temps de traitement par rapport à TCP et réduit de manière significative l’utilisation de tampons, ce qui se traduit par une baisse des délais

Performance modelling with adaptive hidden Markov models and discriminatory processor sharing queues

In modern computer systems, workload varies at different times and locations. It is important to model the performance of such systems via workload models that are both representative and efficient. For example, model-generated workloads represent realistic system behaviour, especially during peak times, when it is crucial to predict and address performance bottlenecks. In this thesis, we model performance, namely throughput and delay, using adaptive models and discrete queues. Hidden Markov models (HMMs) parsimoniously capture the correlation and burstiness of workloads with spatiotemporal characteristics. By adapting the batch training of standard HMMs to incremental learning, online HMMs act as benchmarks on workloads obtained from live systems (i.e. storage systems and financial markets) and reduce time complexity of the Baum-Welch algorithm. Similarly, by extending HMM capabilities to train on multiple traces simultaneously it follows that workloads of different types are modelled in parallel by a multi-input HMM. Typically, the HMM-generated traces verify the throughput and burstiness of the real data. Applications of adaptive HMMs include predicting user behaviour in social networks and performance-energy measurements in smartphone applications. Equally important is measuring system delay through response times. For example, workloads such as Internet traffic arriving at routers are affected by queueing delays. To meet quality of service needs, queueing delays must be minimised and, hence, it is important to model and predict such queueing delays in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Therefore, we propose a class of discrete, processor-sharing queues for approximating queueing delay as response time distributions, which represent service level agreements at specific spatiotemporal levels. We adapt discrete queues to model job arrivals with distributions given by a Markov-modulated Poisson process (MMPP) and served under discriminatory processor-sharing scheduling. Further, we propose a dynamic strategy of service allocation to minimise delays in UDP traffic flows whilst maximising a utility function.Open Acces

Telecommunications Networks

This book guides readers through the basics of rapidly emerging networks to more advanced concepts and future expectations of Telecommunications Networks. It identifies and examines the most pressing research issues in Telecommunications and it contains chapters written by leading researchers, academics and industry professionals. Telecommunications Networks - Current Status and Future Trends covers surveys of recent publications that investigate key areas of interest such as: IMS, eTOM, 3G/4G, optimization problems, modeling, simulation, quality of service, etc. This book, that is suitable for both PhD and master students, is organized into six sections: New Generation Networks, Quality of Services, Sensor Networks, Telecommunications, Traffic Engineering and Routing

Proceedings of the Third Edition of the Annual Conference on Wireless On-demand Network Systems and Services (WONS 2006)

Ce fichier regroupe en un seul documents l'ensemble des articles accéptés pour la conférences WONS2006/http://citi.insa-lyon.fr/wons2006/index.htmlThis year, 56 papers were submitted. From the Open Call submissions we accepted 16 papers as full papers (up to 12 pages) and 8 papers as short papers (up to 6 pages). All the accepted papers will be presented orally in the Workshop sessions. More precisely, the selected papers have been organized in 7 session: Channel access and scheduling, Energy-aware Protocols, QoS in Mobile Ad-Hoc networks, Multihop Performance Issues, Wireless Internet, Applications and finally Security Issues. The papers (and authors) come from all parts of the world, confirming the international stature of this Workshop. The majority of the contributions are from Europe (France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, UK). However, a significant number is from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Iran, Korea and USA. The proceedings also include two invited papers. We take this opportunity to thank all the authors who submitted their papers to WONS 2006. You helped make this event again a success

Routing Strategies for Capacity Enhancement in Multi-hop Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

This thesis examines a Distributed Interference Impact Probing (DIIP) strategy for Wireless Ad hoc Networks (WANETs), using a novel cross-layer Minimum Impact Routing (MIR) protocol. Perfonnance is judged in tenns of interference reduction ratio, efficiency, and system and user capacity, which are calculated based on the measurement of Disturbed Nodes (DN). A large number of routing algorithms have been proposed with distinctive features aimed to overcome WANET's fundamental challenges, such as routing over a dynamic topology, scheduling broadcast signals using dynamic Media Access Control (MAC), and constraints on network scalability. However, the scalability problem ofWANET cannot simply adapt the frequency reuse mechanism designed for traditional stationary cellular networks due to the relay burden, and there is no single comprehensive algorithm proposed for it. DIIP enhances system and user capacity using a cross layer routing algorithm, MIR, using feedback from DIIP to balance transmit power in order to control hop length, which consequently changes the number of relays along the path. This maximizes the number of simultaneous transmitting nodes, and minimizes the interference impact, i.e. measured in tenns of 'disturbed nodes'. The perfonnance of MIR is examined compared with simple shortest-path routing. A WANET simulation model is configured to simulate both routing algorithms under multiple scenarios. The analysis has shown that once the transmitting range of a node changes, the total number of disturbed nodes along a path changes accordingly, hence the system and user capacity varies with interference impact variation. By carefully selecting a suitable link length, the neighbouring node density can be adjusted to reduce the total number of DN, and thereby allowing a higher spatial reuse ratio. In this case the system capacity can increase significantly as the number of nodes increases. In contrast, if the link length is chosen regardless ofthe negative impact of interference, capacity decreases. In addition, MIR diverts traffic from congested areas, such as the central part of a network or bottleneck points