Throughput Analysis of CSMA Wireless Networks with Finite Offered-load

This paper proposes an approximate method, equivalent access intensity (EAI), for the throughput analysis of CSMA wireless networks in which links have finite offered-load and their MAC-layer transmit buffers may be empty from time to time. Different from prior works that mainly considered the saturated network, we take into account in our analysis the impacts of empty transmit buffers on the interactions and dependencies among links in the network that is more common in practice. It is known that the empty transmit buffer incurs extra waiting time for a link to compete for the channel airtime usage, since when it has no packet waiting for transmission, the link will not perform channel competition. The basic idea behind EAI is that this extra waiting time can be mapped to an equivalent "longer" backoff countdown time for the unsaturated link, yielding a lower link access intensity that is defined as the mean packet transmission time divided by the mean backoff countdown time. That is, we can compute the "equivalent access intensity" of an unsaturated link to incorporate the effects of the empty transmit buffer on its behavior of channel competition. Then, prior saturated ideal CSMA network (ICN) model can be adopted for link throughput computation. Specifically, we propose an iterative algorithm, "Compute-and-Compare", to identify which links are unsaturated under current offered-load and protocol settings, compute their "equivalent access intensities" and calculate link throughputs. Simulation shows that our algorithm has high accuracy under various offered-load and protocol settings. We believe the ability to identify unsaturated links and compute links throughputs as established in this paper will serve an important first step toward the design and optimization of general CSMA wireless networks with offered-load control.Comment: 6 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1007.5255 by other author

An Accurate Performance Analysis of Hybrid Efficient and Reliable MAC Protocol in VANET under Non-saturated Conditions

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) is a technology supporting two types of applications, safety and service applications with higher and lower priorities respectively. Thereby, Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol is designed to provide reliable and efficient data broadcasting based on prioritization. Different from the IEEE 1609.4 (legacy), HER-MAC protocol is a new multi-channel MAC proposed for VANETs, offering remarkable performance with regards to safety applications transmission. This paper focuses on the analysis of packet delivery ratio of the HER-MAC protocol under non-saturated conditions. 1-D and 2-D Markov chains have been developed for safety and non-safety applications respectively, to evaluate mathematically the performance of HER-MAC protocol. The presented work has taken into account the freezing of the backoff timer for both applications and the backoff stages along with short retry limit for non-safety applications in order to meet the IEEE 802.11p specifications. It highlights that taking these elements into consideration are important in modeling the system, to provide an accurate estimation of the channel access, and guarantees that no packet is served indefinitely. More precise results of the system packet delivery ratio have been yield. The probability of successful transmission and collisions were derived and used to compute the packet delivery ratio. The simulation results validate the analytical results of our models and indicate that the performance of our models outperformed the existing models in terms of the packet delivery ratio under different number of vehicles and contention window

Performance Modeling and Analysis of Wireless Local Area Networks with Bursty Traffic

The explosive increase in the use of mobile digital devices has posed great challenges in the design and implementation of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). Ever-increasing demands for high-speed and ubiquitous digital communication have made WLANs an essential feature of everyday life. With audio and video forming the highest percentage of traffic generated by multimedia applications, a huge demand is placed for high speed WLANs that provide high Quality-of-Service (QoS) and can satisfy end user’s needs at a relatively low cost. Providing video and audio contents to end users at a satisfactory level with various channel quality and current battery capacities requires thorough studies on the properties of such traffic. In this regard, Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol of the 802.11 standard plays a vital role in the management and coordination of shared channel access and data transmission. Therefore, this research focuses on developing new efficient analytical models that evaluate the performance of WLANs and the MAC protocol in the presence of bursty, correlated and heterogeneous multimedia traffic using Batch Markovian Arrival Process (BMAP). BMAP can model the correlation between different packet size distributions and traffic rates while accurately modelling aggregated traffic which often possesses negative statistical properties. The research starts with developing an accurate traffic generator using BMAP to capture the existing correlations in multimedia traffics. For validation, the developed traffic generator is used as an arrival process to a queueing model and is analyzed based on average queue length and mean waiting time. The performance of BMAP/M/1 queue is studied under various number of states and maximum batch sizes of BMAP. The results clearly indicate that any increase in the number of states of the underlying Markov Chain of BMAP or maximum batch size, lead to higher burstiness and correlation of the arrival process, prompting the speed of the queue towards saturation. The developed traffic generator is then used to model traffic sources in IEEE 802.11 WLANs, measuring important QoS metrics of throughput, end-to-end delay, frame loss probability and energy consumption. Performance comparisons are conducted on WLANs under the influence of multimedia traffics modelled as BMAP, Markov Modulated Poisson Process and Poisson Process. The results clearly indicate that bursty traffics generated by BMAP demote network performance faster than other traffic sources under moderate to high loads. The model is also used to study WLANs with unsaturated, heterogeneous and bursty traffic sources. The effects of traffic load and network size on the performance of WLANs are investigated to demonstrate the importance of burstiness and heterogeneity of traffic on accurate evaluation of MAC protocol in wireless multimedia networks. The results of the thesis highlight the importance of taking into account the true characteristics of multimedia traffics for accurate evaluation of the MAC protocol in the design and analysis of wireless multimedia networks and technologies

Analysis and improvement of medium access control protocols in wireless networks. Performance modelling and Quality-of-Service enhancement of IEEE 802.11e MAC in wireless local area networks under heterogeneous multimedia traffic.

In order to efficiently utilize the scarce wireless resource as well as keep up with the ever-increasing demand for Quality-of-Service (QoS) of multimedia applications, wireless networks are undergoing rapid development and dramatic changes in the underlying technologies and protocols. The Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol, which coordinates the channel access and data transmission of wireless stations, plays a pivotal role in wireless networks. Performance modelling and analysis has been and continues to be of great theoretical and practical importance in the design and development of wireless networks. This research is devoted to developing efficient and cost-effective analytical tools for the performance analysis and enhancement of MAC protocols in Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) under heterogeneous multimedia traffic. To support the MAC-layer QoS in WLANs, the IEEE 802.11e Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) protocol has proposed three QoS differentiation schemes in terms of Arbitrary Inter-Frame Space (AIFS), Contention Window (CW), and Transmission Opportunity (TXOP). This research starts with the development of new analytical models for the TXOP scheme specified in the EDCA protocol under Poisson traffic. A dynamic TXOP scheme is then proposed to adjust the TXOP limits according to the status of the transmission queue. Theoretical analysis and simulation experiments show that the proposed dynamic scheme largely improves the performance of TXOP. To evaluate the TXOP scheme in the presence of ii heterogeneous traffic, a versatile analytical model is developed to capture the traffic heterogeneity and model the features of burst transmission. The performance results highlight the importance of taking into account the heterogeneous traffic for the accurate evaluation of the TXOP scheme in wireless multimedia networks. To obtain a thorough and deep understanding of the performance attributes of the EDCA protocol, a comprehensive analytical model is then proposed to accommodate the integration of the three QoS schemes of EDCA in terms of AIFS, CW, and TXOP under Poisson traffic. The performance results show that the TXOP scheme can not only support service differentiation but also improve the network performance, whereas the AIFS and CW schemes provide QoS differentiation only. Moreover, the results demonstrate that the MAC buffer size has considerable impact on the QoS performance of EDCA under Poisson traffic. To investigate the performance of EDCA in wireless multimedia networks, an analytical model is further developed for EDCA under heterogeneous traffic. The performance results demonstrate the significant effects of heterogeneous traffic on the total delay and frame losses of EDCA with different buffer sizes. Finally, an efficient admission control scheme is presented for the IEEE 802.11e WLANs based on analytical modelling and a game-theoretical approach. The admission control scheme can maintain the system operation at an optimal point where the utility of the Access Point (AP) is maximized with the QoS constraints of various users

Mac-Phy Cross-Layer analysis and design of Mimo-Ofdm Wlans based on fast link adaptation

The latestWLAN standard, known as IEEE 802.11n, has notably increased the network capacity with respect to its predecessors thanks to the incorporation of the multipleinput multiple-output (MIMO) technology. Nonetheless, the new amendment, as its previous ones, does not specify how crucial configuration mechanisms, most notably the adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) algorithm should be implemented. The AMC process has proved essential to fully exploit the system resources in light of varying channel conditions. In this dissertation, a closed-loop AMC technique, referred to as fast link adaption (FLA) algorithm, that effectively selects themodulation and coding scheme (MCS) for multicarriermultiantennaWLAN networks is proposed. The FLA algorithm determines the MCS that maximizes the throughput while satisfying a quality of service (QoS) constraint, usually defined in the form of an objective packet error rate (PER). To this end, FLA uses a packet/bit error rate prediction methodology based on the exponential effective SNRmetric (EESM). The FLA algorithm performance has been evaluated under IEEE 802.11n systems that thanks to the incorporation of a feedbackmechanismare able to implement closed- loop AMC mechanisms. Initially, this AMC technique relies only on physical layer information but it is subsequently extended to also take into account themediumaccess control (MAC) sublayer performance. At the physical layer, the FLA algorithm has demonstrated its effectivity by performing very close to optimality in terms of throughput, while satisfying a prescribed PER constraint. The FLA algorithm has also been evaluated using imperfect channel information. It has been observed that the proposed FLA technique is rather robust against imperfect channel information, and only in highly-frequency selective channels, imperfect channel knowledge causes a noticeable degradation in throughput. At the MAC sublayer, the FLA algorithm has been complemented with a timeout strategy that weighs down the influence of the available channel information as this becomes outdated. This channel information outdate is caused by the MAC sublayer whose user multiplexing policy potentially results in large delays between acquiring the instant in which the channel state information is acquired and that in which the channel is accessed. Results demonstrate the superiority of FLA when compared to open-loop algorithms under saturated and non-saturated conditions and irrespective of the packet length, number of users, protocol (CSMA/CA or CDMA/E2CA) and access scheme (Basic Access or RTS/CTS). Additionally, several analytical models have been developed to estimate the system performance at the MAC sublayer. These models account for all operational details of the IEEE 802.11n MAC sublayer, such as finite number of retries, anomalous slot or channel errors. In particular, a semi-analytical model that assesses the MAC layer throughput under saturated conditions, considering the AMC performance is first introduced. Then, an analytical model that allows the evaluation of the QoS performance under non-saturated conditions is presented. This model focuses on single MCS and it is able to accurately predict very important system performance metrics such as blocking probability, delay, probability of discard or goodput thanks to the consideration of the finite queues on each station. Finally, the previous non-saturated analytical approach is used to define a semi-analytical model in order to estimate the system performance when considering AMC algorithms (i.e. whenmultiple MCSs are available)La darrera versió de l’estàndard deWLAN, anomenada IEEE 802.11n, ha augmentat la seva capacitat notablement en relació als sistemes anteriors gràcies a la incorporació de la tecnologia de múltiples antenes en transmissió i recepció (MIMO). No obstant això, la nova proposta, al igual que les anteriors, segueix sense especificar com s’han d’implementar elsmecanismes de configuraciómés crucials, un dels quals és l’algoritme de codificació imodulació adaptativa (AMC). Aquests algoritmes ja han demostrat la seva importància a l’hora demaximitzar el rendiment del sistema tenint en compte les condicions canviants del canal. En aquesta tesis s’ha proposat un algoritme AMC de llaç tancat, anomenat adaptació ràpida de l’enllaç (FLA), que selecciona eficientment l’esquema demodulació i codificació adaptativa per xarxes WLAN basades en arquitectures multiportadora multiantena. L’algoritme FLA determina el mode de transmissió capaç de maximitzar el throughput per les condicions de canal actuals, mentre satisfà un requisit de qualitat de servei en forma de taxa d’error per paquet (PER). FLA utilitza una metodologia de predicció de PER basada en l’estimació de la relació senyal renou (SNR) efectiva exponencial (EESM). El rendiment de l’algoritme FLA ha estat avaluat en sistemes IEEE 802.11n, ja que aquests, gràcies a la incorporació d’unmecanisme de realimentació demodes de transmissió, poden adoptar solucions AMC de llaç tancat. En una primera part, l’estudi s’ha centrat a la capa física i després s’ha estès a la subcapa MAC. A la capa física s’ha demostrat l’efectivitat de l’algoritme FLA aconseguint un rendiment molt proper al que ens proporcionaria un esquema AMC òptim en termes de throughput, alhora que es satisfan els requisits de PER objectiu. L’algoritme FLA també ha estat avaluat utilitzant informació imperfecte del canal. S’ha vist que l’algoritme FLA proposat és robust en front dels efectes d’estimació imperfecte del canal, i només en canals altament selectius en freqüència, la informació imperfecte del canal provoca una davallada en el rendiment en termes de throughput. A la subcapa MAC, l’algoritme FLA ha estat complementat amb una estratègia de temps d’espera que disminueix la dependència amb la informació de canal disponible a mesura que aquesta va quedant desfassada respecte de l’estat actual. Aquesta informació de canal desfassada és conseqüència de la subcapa MAC que degut a la multiplexació d’usuaris introdueix grans retards entre que es determina el mode de transmissió més adequat i la seva utilització per a l’accés al canal. Els resultats obtinguts han demostrat la superioritat de FLA respecte d’altres algoritmes de llaç obert en condicions de saturació i de no saturació, i independentment de la longitud de paquet, nombre d’usuaris, protocol (CSMA/CA i CSMA/E2CA) i esquema d’accés (Basic Access i RTS/CTS). Amés, s’han desenvolupat diversosmodels analítics per tal d’estimar el rendiment del sistema a la subcapa MAC. Aquests models consideren tots els detalls de funcionament de la subcapaMAC del 802.11n, comper exemple un nombre finit de retransmissions de cada paquet, l’slot anòmal o els errors introduïts pel canal. Inicialment s’ha proposat unmodel semi-analític que determina el throughtput en condicions de saturació, considerant el rendiment dels algoritmes AMC. Després s’ha presentat un model analític que estima el rendiment del sistema per condicions de no saturació, mitjançat elmodelat de cues finites a cada estació. Aquestmodel consideramodes de transmissió fixes i és capaç de determinar de manera molt precisa mètriques de rendimentmolt importants comsón la probabilitat de bloqueig de cada estació, el retard mitjà del paquets, la probabilitat de descart o la mesura del goodput. Finalment, el model analític de no saturació s’ha utilitzat per definir un model semi-analític per tal d’estimar el rendiment del sistema quan es considera l’ús d’algoritmes AMC

Optimization of the interoperability and dynamic spectrum management in mobile communications systems beyond 3G

The future wireless ecosystem will heterogeneously integrate a number of overlapped Radio Access Technologies (RATs) through a common platform. A major challenge arising from the heterogeneous network is the Radio Resource Management (RRM) strategy. A Common RRM (CRRM) module is needed in order to provide a step toward network convergence. This work aims at implementing HSDPA and IEEE 802.11e CRRM evaluation tools. Innovative enhancements to IEEE 802.11e have been pursued on the application of cross-layer signaling to improve Quality of Service (QoS) delivery, and provide more efficient usage of radio resources by adapting such parameters as arbitrary interframe spacing, a differentiated backoff procedure and transmission opportunities, as well as acknowledgment policies (where the most advised block size was found to be 12). Besides, the proposed cross-layer algorithm dynamically changes the size of the Arbitration Interframe Space (AIFS) and the Contention Window (CW) duration according to a periodically obtained fairness measure based on the Signal to Interference-plus-Noise Ratio (SINR) and transmission time, a delay constraint and the collision rate of a given machine. The throughput was increased in 2 Mb/s for all the values of the load that have been tested whilst satisfying more users than with the original standard. For the ad hoc mode an analytical model was proposed that allows for investigating collision free communications in a distributed environment. The addition of extra frequency spectrum bands and an integrated CRRM that enables spectrum aggregation was also addressed. RAT selection algorithms allow for determining the gains obtained by using WiFi as a backup network for HSDPA. The proposed RAT selection algorithm is based on the load of each system, without the need for a complex management system. Simulation results show that, in such scenario, for high system loads, exploiting localization while applying load suitability optimization based algorithm, can provide a marginal gain of up to 450 kb/s in the goodput. HSDPA was also studied in the context of cognitive radio, by considering two co-located BSs operating at different frequencies (in the 2 and 5 GHz bands) in the same cell. The system automatically chooses the frequency to serve each user with an optimal General Multi-Band Scheduling (GMBS) algorithm. It was shown that enabling the access to a secondary band, by using the proposed Integrated CRRM (iCRRM), an almost constant gain near 30 % was obtained in the throughput with the proposed optimal solution, compared to a system where users are first allocated in one of the two bands and later not able to handover between the bands. In this context, future cognitive radio scenarios where IEEE 802.11e ad hoc modes will be essential for giving access to the mobile users have been proposed

Optimización en el despliegue de servicios de Voz sobre IP (VoIP) sobre redes WiFi con restricciones de calidad de servicio

Las tecnologías de Voz sobre IP (VoIP) han permitido el despliegue de nuevos servicios de voz a través de Internet durante las dos últimas décadas. Por otro lado, las redes inalámbricas de área local (WLAN) basadas en el estándar IEEE 802.11 (i.e., WiFi) han experimentado un crecimiento de popularidad debido a su bajo coste y flexibilidad. Sin embargo, el despliegue de comunicaciones de VoIP con garantías de calidad sobre redes IEEE 802.11 implica una serie de dificultades (i.e., los paquetes pueden sufrir pérdidas, colisiones, y retardos variables) que no han sido satisfactoriamente resueltas con las técnicas y modelos disponibles en la actualidad. En esta tesis se desarrolla un nuevo modelo analítico de la sub-capa MAC de IEEE 802.11 que permite estimar la calidad y consumo energético de las conversaciones en un escenario realista de VoIP sobre WiFi (VoWiFi). Además, el modelo anterior se utiliza para plantear y resolver dos nuevas aplicaciones de despliegue y optimización de servicios VoWiFi: (a) el despliegue de vehículos aéreos no tripulados (UAVs) para proveer de un servicio de VoWiFi con garantías de calidad a un conjunto de usuarios y, (b) un nuevo mecanismo de control de admisión de llamadas en la red WiFi corporativa y unifica el acceso al servicio tanto para usuarios de terminales cableados como inalámbricos. Validamos el modelo analítico propuesto frente a simulaciones realizadas con el simulador de red ns-3. Los resultados muestran la utilidad del modelo propuesto para predecir las prestaciones (e.g., retardo, pérdidas) y el consumo energético en la tarjeta de red cuando se transmiten flujos de voz sobre IEEE 802.11 en condiciones no ideales. Esta capacidad de predicción ha sido clave en las propuestas realizadas de nuevas aplicaciones. En el caso del despliegue de drones, nos ha permitido definir un nuevo problema de posicionamiento inicial que puede resultar muy práctico en situaciones de rescate al aire libre. En el caso del control de admisión en entornos corporativos, el modelo nos ha permitido predecir la capacidad máxima de flujos de voz que puede ser admitida en la organización para garantizar calidad a las conversaciones existentes. Usando esta capacidad, hemos planteado un algoritmo nuevo que puede ser utilizado para unificar el control de acceso para usuarios WiFi y usuarios de terminales cableados y que aumenta el número de usuarios concurrentes respecto a los algoritmos existentes.Voice over IP (VoIP) technologies have enabled the deployment of new voice services over the Internet during the last two decades. Meanwhile, wireless local area networks (WLAN) based on the IEEE 802.11 standard (i.e., WiFi) have grown in popularity due to their low cost and flexibility. However, the deployment of quality-guaranteed VoIP communications over IEEE 802.11 networks implies a series of technical difficulties (i.e. lost packets, collisions, and delays) that have not been successfully addressed by the techniques and models available today. In this thesis, we develop a new analytical model for the IEEE 802.11 MAC sub-layer that allows one to estimate quality and energy consumption in a realistic VoIP over WiFi (VoWiFi) scenario. In addition, the previous model is used to propose and solve two new applications for the deployment and optimization of VoWiFi services: (a) deploying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to provide a VoWiFi service under guaranteed quality to a group of ground users and, (b) a new call admission control mechanism for WiFi corporate networks, which unifies the access to the voice service for both wired and wireless terminals. We validate the proposed analytical model against simulation results obtained with the ns-3 network simulator. Results show the accuracy of the proposed model for the prediction of the performance (e.g. delay, losses) and energy consumption of network interfaces when voice flows are transmitted over IEEE 802.11 under non-ideal conditions. This prediction capability has been a key component of the two VoWiFi applications developed. In the UAV deployment, it has allowed us to define a new initial positioning problem that can be very practical in outdoor rescue situations. Regarding admission control in corporate environments, the model has allowed us to predict the maximum capacity of voice flows that can be admitted in the organization to guarantee quality to existing conversations. Using this capability, we have proposed a new algorithm that can be used to unify access control for wireless and wired users, and that increases the number of concurrent users with respect to existing algorithm

Spectrum and Energy Efficient Medium Access Control for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

The increasingly growing number of mobile devices and volume of mobile data traffic necessitate establishing an effective self-organizing wireless ad hoc network to efficiently utilize radio spectrum and energy. The transmissions time and bandwidth should be dynamically coordinated based on instantaneous traffic load of the links in the network. Energy consumption in a mobile device can be reduced by putting the radio interface into a sleep mode. However, the mobile device cannot receive incoming data packets in the sleep mode. Thus, awake and sleep times of radio interfaces should be carefully planned to avoid missing incoming packets. In a wireless network, links that are far apart in distance can simultaneously transmit using the same bandwidth without interfering reception at destination nodes. Concurrent transmissions should be properly scheduled to maximize spatial spectrum utilization. Also, the transmission power level of each link should be optimized to enhance spectrum and energy efficiencies. First, we present a new energy-efficient medium access control (MAC) scheme for a fully connected wireless ad hoc network. Energy consumption is reduced by periodically putting radio interfaces in the sleep mode and by reducing transmission collisions. The network throughput and average packet transmission delay are also improved because of lower collision and contention overhead. The proposed MAC scheme can achieve energy saving for realtime traffic which requires a low packet transmission delay. An analytical model is established to evaluate the performance of the proposed MAC scheme. Analytical and simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme has a significantly lower energy consumption, achieves higher throughput, and has a lower packet transmission delay in comparison with existing power saving MAC protocols. Second, we present a novel distributed MAC scheme based on dynamic space-reservation to effectively coordinate transmissions in a wireless ad hoc network. A set of coordinator nodes distributed over the network area are employed to collect and exchange local network information and to periodically schedule links for transmission in a distributed manner. For each scheduled transmission, a proper space area around the receiver node is reserved to enhance spatial spectrum reuse. Also, the data transmission times are deterministic to minimize idle-listening radio interface energy consumption. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves substantially higher throughput and has significantly lower energy consumption in comparison with existing schemes. We study joint scheduling and transmission power control in a wireless ad hoc network. We analyze the asymptotic joint optimal scheduling and transmission power control, and determine the maximum spectrum and energy efficiencies in a wireless network. Based on the asymptotic analysis, we propose a novel scheduling and transmission power control scheme to approach the maximum spectrum efficiency, subject to an energy consumption constraint. Simulation results show that the proposed distributed scheme achieves 40% higher throughput than existing schemes. Indeed, the scheduling efficiency of our proposed scheme is about 70% of the asymptotic optimal scheduling and transmission power control. Also, the energy consumption of the proposed scheme is about 20% of the energy consumed using existing MAC protocols. The proposed MAC, scheduling and transmission power control schemes provide effective spectrum sharing and energy management for future wireless hotspot and peer-to-peer communication networks. The presented asymptotic analysis determines the maximum spectrum and energy efficiencies in a wireless network and provides an effective means to efficiently utilize spectrum and energy resources based on network traffic load and energy consumption constrains