Capacity Analysis of IEEE 802.11ah WLANs for M2M Communications

Focusing on the increasing market of the sensors and actuators networks, the IEEE 802.11ah Task Group is currently working on the standardization of a new amendment. This new amendment will operate at the sub-1GHz band, ensure transmission ranges up to 1 Km, data rates above 100 kbps and very low power operation. With IEEE 802.11ah, the WLANs will offer a solution for applications such as smart metering, plan automation, eHealth or surveillance. Moreover, thanks to a hierarchical signalling, the IEEE 802.11ah will be able to manage a higher number of stations (STAs) and improve the 802.11 Power Saving Mechanisms. In order to support a high number of STAs, two different signalling modes are proposed, TIM and Non-TIM Offset. In this paper we present a theoretical model to predict the maximum number of STAs supported by both modes depending on the traffic load and the data rate used. Moreover, the IEEE 802.11ah performance and energy consumption for both signalling modes and for different traffic patterns and data rates is evaluated. Results show that both modes achieve similar Packet Delivery Ratio values but the energy consumed with the TIM Offset is, in average, a 11.7% lower.Comment: Multiple Access Communications 201

Experimental Evaluation of Large Scale WiFi Multicast Rate Control

WiFi multicast to very large groups has gained attention as a solution for multimedia delivery in crowded areas. Yet, most recently proposed schemes do not provide performance guarantees and none have been tested at scale. To address the issue of providing high multicast throughput with performance guarantees, we present the design and experimental evaluation of the Multicast Dynamic Rate Adaptation (MuDRA) algorithm. MuDRA balances fast adaptation to channel conditions and stability, which is essential for multimedia applications. MuDRA relies on feedback from some nodes collected via a light-weight protocol and dynamically adjusts the rate adaptation response time. Our experimental evaluation of MuDRA on the ORBIT testbed with over 150 nodes shows that MuDRA outperforms other schemes and supports high throughput multicast flows to hundreds of receivers while meeting quality requirements. MuDRA can support multiple high quality video streams, where 90% of the nodes report excellent or very good video quality

μ\muNap: Practical Micro-Sleeps for 802.11 WLANs

In this paper, we revisit the idea of putting interfaces to sleep during 'packet overhearing' (i.e., when there are ongoing transmissions addressed to other stations) from a practical standpoint. To this aim, we perform a robust experimental characterisation of the timing and consumption behaviour of a commercial 802.11 card. We design $\mu$Nap, a local standard-compliant energy-saving mechanism that leverages micro-sleep opportunities inherent to the CSMA operation of 802.11 WLANs. This mechanism is backwards compatible and incrementally deployable, and takes into account the timing limitations of existing hardware, as well as practical CSMA-related issues (e.g., capture effect). According to the performance assessment carried out through trace-based simulation, the use of our scheme would result in a 57% reduction in the time spent in overhearing, thus leading to an energy saving of 15.8% of the activity time.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figure

Video QoS/QoE over IEEE802.11n/ac: A Contemporary Survey

The demand for video applications over wireless networks has tremendously increased, and IEEE 802.11 standards have provided higher support for video transmission. However, providing Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) for video over WLAN is still a challenge due to the error sensitivity of compressed video and dynamic channels. This thesis presents a contemporary survey study on video QoS/QoE over WLAN issues and solutions. The objective of the study is to provide an overview of the issues by conducting a background study on the video codecs and their features and characteristics, followed by studying QoS and QoE support in IEEE 802.11 standards. Since IEEE 802.11n is the current standard that is mostly deployed worldwide and IEEE 802.11ac is the upcoming standard, this survey study aims to investigate the most recent video QoS/QoE solutions based on these two standards. The solutions are divided into two broad categories, academic solutions, and vendor solutions. Academic solutions are mostly based on three main layers, namely Application, Media Access Control (MAC) and Physical (PHY) which are further divided into two major categories, single-layer solutions, and cross-layer solutions. Single-layer solutions are those which focus on a single layer to enhance the video transmission performance over WLAN. Cross-layer solutions involve two or more layers to provide a single QoS solution for video over WLAN. This thesis has also presented and technically analyzed QoS solutions by three popular vendors. This thesis concludes that single-layer solutions are not directly related to video QoS/QoE, and cross-layer solutions are performing better than single-layer solutions, but they are much more complicated and not easy to be implemented. Most vendors rely on their network infrastructure to provide QoS for multimedia applications. They have their techniques and mechanisms, but the concept of providing QoS/QoE for video is almost the same because they are using the same standards and rely on Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM) to provide QoS

A Network Algorithm for 3D/2D IPTV Distribution using WiMAX and WLAN Technologies

The final publication is available at link.springer.comThe appearance of new broadband wireless technologies jointly with the ability to offer enough quality of service to provide IPTV over them, have made possible the mobility and ubiquity of any type of device to access the IPTV network. The minimum bandwidth required in the access network to provide appropriate quality 3D/2D IPTV services jointly with the need to guarantee the Quality of Experience (QoE) to the end user, makes the need of algorithms that should be able to combine different wireless standards and technologies. In this paper, we propose a network algorithm that manages the IPTV access network and decides which type of wireless technology the customers should connect with when using multiband devices, depending on the requirements of the IPTV client device, the available networks, and some network parameters (such as the number of loss packets and packet delay), to provide the maximum QoE to the customer. The measurements taken in a real environment from several wireless networks allow us to know the performance of the proposed system when it selects each one of them. The measurements taken from a test bench demonstrate the success of our system.This work has been partially supported by the Polytechnic University of Valencia, though the PAID-15-10 multidisciplinary projects, by the Instituto de Telecomunicacoes, Next Generation Networks and Applications Group (NetGNA), Portugal, and by National Funding from the FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia through the PEst-OE/EEI/LA0008/2011 Project.Lloret, J.; Cánovas Solbes, A.; Rodrigues, JJPC.; Lin, K. (2013). A Network Algorithm for 3D/2D IPTV Distribution using WiMAX and WLAN Technologies. Multimedia Tools and Applications. 67(1):7-30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-011-0929-4S730671Abukharis S, MacKenzie R, Farrell TO (2009) Improving QoS of Video Transmitted Over 802.11 WLANs Using Frame Aggregation. London Communications Symposium.. London, United Kingdom, September 03–04Alejandro Canovas, Fernando Boronat, Carlos Turro and Jaime Lloret (2009) Multicast TV over WLAN in a University Campus Network, The Fifth International Conference on Networking and Services (ICNS 2009), Valencia (Spain), April 20–25Alfonsi B (2005) “I want my IPTV: Internet Protocol television predicted a winner,” IEEE Distributed Systems Online, vol.6, no.2Birlik F, Gurbuz Ö, Ercetin O (2009) IPTV Home Networking via 802.11 Wireless Mesh Networks: An Implementation Experience. IEEE Trans. on Consumer Electronics, Vol. 55, No. 3Cai LX, Ling X, Shen X, Mark JW, Cai L (2009) Supporting voice and video applications over IEEE 802.11n WLANs. Wireless Networks 15:443–454Cunningham G, Perry P, Murphy J, Murphy L (2009) Seamless Handover of IPTV Streams in a Wireless LAN Network. Transactions on Broadcasting, IEEE 55(4):796–801Dai Z, Fracchia R, Gosteau J, Pellati P, Vivier G (2008) Vertical Handover Criteria and Algorithm in IEEE802.11 and 802.16 Hybrid Networks, IEEE International Conference on Communications, 2008. ICC’08. Beijing, China, 19–23Gidlund M, Ekling J (2008) VoIP and IPTV distribution over wireless mesh networks in indoor environment. IEEE Trans Consum Electron 54(4):1665–1671Hellberg C, Greene D, Boyes T (2007) Broadband network architectures: designing and deploying triple-play services. Prentice Hall PTR Upper Saddle River, NJ, USAHsu H-T, Kuo F-Y, Lu P-H (2010) Design of WiFi/WiMAX dual-band E-shaped patch antennas through cavity model approach. Microw Opt Technol Lett 52(2):471–474IEEE 802.11 Working Group, At http://www.ieee802.org/11/index.shtml [last access: July 2011]IEEE Std 802.11™-2007 - IEEE Standard for Information Technology— Telecommunications and information exchange between systems— Local and metropolitan area networks—Specific requirements Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) SpecificationsIEEE Std 802.16™-2009, IEEE Standard for Local and metropolitan area networks, Part 16: Air Interface for Broadband Wireless Access Systems. At http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/download/802.16-2009.pdf [last access: July 2011]inCode Telecom group Inc. (2006) The Quad-Play—the First Wave of the Converged Services Evolution. White paper, FebruaryIPTV Focus Group, Available at http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/IPTV/ [last access: July 2011]Jindal S, Jindal A, Gupta N (2005) Grouping WI-MAX, 3 G and WI-FI for wireless broadband, The First IEEE and IFIP International Conference in Central Asia on Internet 2005, September 26–29, Bishkek, KyrgyzstanJin-Yu Zhang, Man-Gui Liang (2008) “IPTV QoS Implement Mechanism in WLAN,” Int. Conference on Intelligent Information Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing. pp 117-120, 15–17Karen Fernanda Medina Velez and Ivonne Alexandra Revelo Arias (2006) Diseño y planificación de una red inalámbrica basada en los estandares IEEE 802.16 (WIMAX) y 802.11 (WIFI) para proveer de internet de banda ancha a poblaciones de las provincias de Loja y Zamora Chinchipe, Tesis Electrónica y Telecomunicaciones (IET), Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito, EcuadorKnightson K, Morita N, Towle T (2005) NGN architecture: generic principles, functional architecture, and implementation. IEEE Commun Mag 43(10):49–56Lai C, Min Chen (2011) Playback-Rate Based Streaming Services for Maximum Network Capacity in IP Multimedia Subsystem, IEEE System Journal, doi: 10.1109/JSYST.2011.2165190Lee K-H, Trong ST, Lee B-G, Kim Y-T (2008) QoS-Guaranteed IPTV Service Provisioning in Home Network with IEEE 802.11e Wireless LAN,” IEEE Network Operations and Management Symposium. pp 71-76Marcelo Atenas, Sandra Sendra, Miguel Garcia, Jaime Lloret (2010) IPTV Performance in IEEE 802.11n WLANs, IEEE Global Communications Conference (IEEE Globecomm 2010), Miami (USA), December 6–10Miguel Garcia, Jaime Lloret, Miguel Edo, Raquel Lacuesta (2009) IPTV Distribution Network Access System Using WiMAX and WLAN Technologies, International Symposium on High Performance Distributed Computing (HPDC 2009), Munich (Germany), June 11–13Park AH, Choi JK (2007) “QoS guaranteed IPTV service over Wireless Broadband network”, The 9th Int. Conference on Advanced Communication Technology 2:1077–1080Retnasothie FE, Ozdemir MK, YÄucek T, Zhang J, Celebi H, Muththaiah R (2006) “Wireless IPTV over WiMAX: Challenges and applications”. IEEE Wamicon, Clearwater, FLSchollmeier G, Winkler C (2004) Providing sustainable QoS in next-generation networks. IEEE Communication Magazine 42(6):102–107She J, Hou F, Ho P-H, Xie L-L (2007) IPTV over WiMAX: Key Success Factors, Challenges, and Solutions [Advances in Mobile Multimedia]. IEEE Commun Mag 45(8):87–93Shihab E, Cai L, Wan F, Gulliver TA, Tin N (2008) Wireless mesh networks for in-home IPTV distribution. IEEE Netw 22(1):52–57Shihab E, Wan F, Cai L, Gulliver A, Tin N (2007) “Performance Analysis of IPTV in Home Networks”, IEEE Global Telecommunications (GLOBECOM 2007), Washington, DC, pp 26–30Singh H, ChangYeul Kvvon, Seong Soo Kim, Chiu Ngo (2008) “IPTV over WirelessLAN: Promises and Challenges,” 5th IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference, pp.626-631Super AG technologies, At http://www.digicom.it/italiano/supporto/WhitePaper/Wireless108M_whitepaper.pdf [last access: July 2011]VLC Media Player, Available at www.videolan.org [last access: July 2011]Wen-Hsing Kuo, Tehuang Liu, Wanjiun Liao (2007) Utility-Based Resource Allocation for Layer-Encoded IPTV Multicast in IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX) Wireless Networks. IEEE International Conference on Communications 2007 (ICC 2007), 24–28. Glasgow, Scotland pp 1754-1759Wireshark Network Protocol Analyzer, Available at www.wireshark.org [last access: July 2011]Xiao Y, Du X, Zhang J, Hu F, Guizani S (2007) Internet protocol television (IPTV): the killer application for the next-generation internet. IEEE Commun Mag 45(11):126–134Yarali A, Rahman S, Mbula B (2008) WIMAX: The innovate Broadband Wireless access technology. Journal of Communications 3(2):53–6

Internet protocol television (IPTV): The Killer application for the next-generation internet

Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) will be the killer application for the next-generation Internet and will provide exciting new revenue opportunities for service providers. However, to deploy IPTV services with a full quality of service (QoS) guarantee, many underlying technologies must be further studied. This article serves as a survey of IPTV services and the underlying technologies. Technical challenges also are identified

A Novel Multicasting Scheme over Wireless LAN Systems by Using Relay

Abstract. We propose a novel multicast scheme that can provide qualityof-service (QoS) to multicast service over IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs by utilizing medium access control (MAC) layer relay. It is well known that IEEE 802.11 provides a physical layer multi-rate capability in response to different channel conditions, and hence packets may be delivered at a higher data rate through a relay node than through the direct link if the direct link has low quality and low data rate. We develop the distributed relay node selection algorithm and the relay channel selection algorithm. The effectiveness of proposed scheme is examined by numerical method and simulation. Simulations show that the proposed relayed multicast significantly improves throughput and delay performance