6,793 research outputs found
Index Policies for Optimal Mean-Variance Trade-Off of Inter-delivery Times in Real-Time Sensor Networks
A problem of much current practical interest is the replacement of the wiring
infrastructure connecting approximately 200 sensor and actuator nodes in
automobiles by an access point. This is motivated by the considerable savings
in automobile weight, simplification of manufacturability, and future
upgradability.
A key issue is how to schedule the nodes on the shared access point so as to
provide regular packet delivery. In this and other similar applications, the
mean of the inter-delivery times of packets, i.e., throughput, is not
sufficient to guarantee service-regularity. The time-averaged variance of the
inter-delivery times of packets is also an important metric.
So motivated, we consider a wireless network where an Access Point schedules
real-time generated packets to nodes over a fading wireless channel. We are
interested in designing simple policies which achieve optimal mean-variance
tradeoff in interdelivery times of packets by minimizing the sum of
time-averaged means and variances over all clients. Our goal is to explore the
full range of the Pareto frontier of all weighted linear combinations of mean
and variance so that one can fully exploit the design possibilities. We
transform this problem into a Markov decision process and show that the problem
of choosing which node's packet to transmit in each slot can be formulated as a
bandit problem. We establish that this problem is indexable and explicitly
derive the Whittle indices. The resulting Index policy is optimal in certain
cases. We also provide upper and lower bounds on the cost for any policy.
Extensive simulations show that Index policies perform better than previously
proposed policies
A High Reliability Asymptotic Approach for Packet Inter-Delivery Time Optimization in Cyber-Physical Systems
In cyber-physical systems such as automobiles, measurement data from sensor
nodes should be delivered to other consumer nodes such as actuators in a
regular fashion. But, in practical systems over unreliable media such as
wireless, it is a significant challenge to guarantee small enough
inter-delivery times for different clients with heterogeneous channel
conditions and inter-delivery requirements. In this paper, we design scheduling
policies aiming at satisfying the inter-delivery requirements of such clients.
We formulate the problem as a risk-sensitive Markov Decision Process (MDP).
Although the resulting problem involves an infinite state space, we first prove
that there is an equivalent MDP involving only a finite number of states. Then
we prove the existence of a stationary optimal policy and establish an
algorithm to compute it in a finite number of steps.
However, the bane of this and many similar problems is the resulting
complexity, and, in an attempt to make fundamental progress, we further propose
a new high reliability asymptotic approach. In essence, this approach considers
the scenario when the channel failure probabilities for different clients are
of the same order, and asymptotically approach zero. We thus proceed to
determine the asymptotically optimal policy: in a two-client scenario, we show
that the asymptotically optimal policy is a "modified least time-to-go" policy,
which is intuitively appealing and easily implementable; in the general
multi-client scenario, we are led to an SN policy, and we develop an algorithm
of low computational complexity to obtain it. Simulation results show that the
resulting policies perform well even in the pre-asymptotic regime with moderate
failure probabilities
Performance Modelling and Optimisation of Multi-hop Networks
A major challenge in the design of large-scale networks is to predict and optimise the
total time and energy consumption required to deliver a packet from a source node to a
destination node. Examples of such complex networks include wireless ad hoc and sensor
networks which need to deal with the effects of node mobility, routing inaccuracies, higher
packet loss rates, limited or time-varying effective bandwidth, energy constraints, and the
computational limitations of the nodes. They also include more reliable communication
environments, such as wired networks, that are susceptible to random failures, security
threats and malicious behaviours which compromise their quality of service (QoS) guarantees.
In such networks, packets traverse a number of hops that cannot be determined
in advance and encounter non-homogeneous network conditions that have been largely
ignored in the literature. This thesis examines analytical properties of packet travel in
large networks and investigates the implications of some packet coding techniques on both
QoS and resource utilisation.
Specifically, we use a mixed jump and diffusion model to represent packet traversal
through large networks. The model accounts for network non-homogeneity regarding
routing and the loss rate that a packet experiences as it passes successive segments of a
source to destination route. A mixed analytical-numerical method is developed to compute
the average packet travel time and the energy it consumes. The model is able to capture
the effects of increased loss rate in areas remote from the source and destination, variable
rate of advancement towards destination over the route, as well as of defending against
malicious packets within a certain distance from the destination. We then consider sending
multiple coded packets that follow independent paths to the destination node so as to
mitigate the effects of losses and routing inaccuracies. We study a homogeneous medium
and obtain the time-dependent properties of the packet’s travel process, allowing us to
compare the merits and limitations of coding, both in terms of delivery times and energy
efficiency. Finally, we propose models that can assist in the analysis and optimisation
of the performance of inter-flow network coding (NC). We analyse two queueing models
for a router that carries out NC, in addition to its standard packet routing function. The
approach is extended to the study of multiple hops, which leads to an optimisation problem
that characterises the optimal time that packets should be held back in a router, waiting
for coding opportunities to arise, so that the total packet end-to-end delay is minimised
Energy Harvesting Wireless Communications: A Review of Recent Advances
This article summarizes recent contributions in the broad area of energy
harvesting wireless communications. In particular, we provide the current state
of the art for wireless networks composed of energy harvesting nodes, starting
from the information-theoretic performance limits to transmission scheduling
policies and resource allocation, medium access and networking issues. The
emerging related area of energy transfer for self-sustaining energy harvesting
wireless networks is considered in detail covering both energy cooperation
aspects and simultaneous energy and information transfer. Various potential
models with energy harvesting nodes at different network scales are reviewed as
well as models for energy consumption at the nodes.Comment: To appear in the IEEE Journal of Selected Areas in Communications
(Special Issue: Wireless Communications Powered by Energy Harvesting and
Wireless Energy Transfer
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