Contention techniques for opportunistic communication in wireless mesh networks

Auf dem Gebiet der drahtlosen Kommunikation und insbesondere auf den tieferen Netzwerkschichten sind gewaltige Fortschritte zu verzeichnen. Innovative Konzepte und Technologien auf der physikalischen Schicht (PHY) gehen dabei zeitnah in zelluläre Netze ein. Drahtlose Maschennetzwerke (WMNs) können mit diesem Innovationstempo nicht mithalten. Die Mehrnutzer-Kommunikation ist ein Grundpfeiler vieler angewandter PHY Technologien, die sich in WMNs nur ungenügend auf die etablierte Schichtenarchitektur abbilden lässt. Insbesondere ist das Problem des Scheduling in WMNs inhärent komplex. Erstaunlicherweise ist der Mehrfachzugriff mit Trägerprüfung (CSMA) in WMNs asymptotisch optimal obwohl das Verfahren eine geringe Durchführungskomplexität aufweist. Daher stellt sich die Frage, in welcher Weise das dem CSMA zugrunde liegende Konzept des konkurrierenden Wettbewerbs (engl. Contention) für die Integration innovativer PHY Technologien verwendet werden kann. Opportunistische Kommunikation ist eine Technik, die die inhärenten Besonderheiten des drahtlosen Kanals ausnutzt. In der vorliegenden Dissertation werden CSMA-basierte Protokolle für die opportunistische Kommunikation in WMNs entwickelt und evaluiert. Es werden dabei opportunistisches Routing (OR) im zustandslosen Kanal und opportunistisches Scheduling (OS) im zustandsbehafteten Kanal betrachtet. Ziel ist es, den Durchsatz von elastischen Paketflüssen gerecht zu maximieren. Es werden Modelle für Überlastkontrolle, Routing und konkurrenzbasierte opportunistische Kommunikation vorgestellt. Am Beispiel von IEEE 802.11 wird illustriert, wie der schichtübergreifende Entwurf in einem Netzwerksimulator prototypisch implementiert werden kann. Auf Grundlage der Evaluationsresultate kann der Schluss gezogen werden, dass die opportunistische Kommunikation konkurrenzbasiert realisierbar ist. Darüber hinaus steigern die vorgestellten Protokolle den Durchsatz im Vergleich zu etablierten Lösungen wie etwa DCF, DSR, ExOR, RBAR und ETT.In the field of wireless communication, a tremendous progress can be observed especially at the lower layers. Innovative physical layer (PHY) concepts and technologies can be rapidly assimilated in cellular networks. Wireless mesh networks (WMNs), on the other hand, cannot keep up with the speed of innovation at the PHY due to their flat and decentralized architecture. Many innovative PHY technologies rely on multi-user communication, so that the established abstraction of the network stack does not work well for WMNs. The scheduling problem in WMNs is inherent complex. Surprisingly, carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) in WMNs is asymptotically utility-optimal even though it has a low computational complexity and does not involve message exchange. Hence, the question arises whether CSMA and the underlying concept of contention allows for the assimilation of advanced PHY technologies into WMNs. In this thesis, we design and evaluate contention protocols based on CSMA for opportunistic communication in WMNs. Opportunistic communication is a technique that relies on multi-user diversity in order to exploit the inherent characteristics of the wireless channel. In particular, we consider opportunistic routing (OR) and opportunistic scheduling (OS) in memoryless and slow fading channels, respectively. We present models for congestion control, routing and contention-based opportunistic communication in WMNs in order to maximize both throughput and fairness of elastic unicast traffic flows. At the instance of IEEE 802.11, we illustrate how the cross-layer algorithms can be implemented within a network simulator prototype. Our evaluation results lead to the conclusion that contention-based opportunistic communication is feasible. Furthermore, the proposed protocols increase both throughput and fairness in comparison to state-of-the-art approaches like DCF, DSR, ExOR, RBAR and ETT

Packet Loss in Terrestrial Wireless and Hybrid Networks

The presence of both a geostationary satellite link and a terrestrial local wireless link on the same path of a given network connection is becoming increasingly common, thanks to the popularity of the IEEE 802.11 protocol. The most common situation where a hybrid network comes into play is having a Wi-Fi link at the network edge and the satellite link somewhere in the network core. Example of scenarios where this can happen are ships or airplanes where Internet connection on board is provided through a Wi-Fi access point and a satellite link with a geostationary satellite; a small office located in remote or isolated area without cabled Internet access; a rescue team using a mobile ad hoc Wi-Fi network connected to the Internet or to a command centre through a mobile gateway using a satellite link. The serialisation of terrestrial and satellite wireless links is problematic from the point of view of a number of applications, be they based on video streaming, interactive audio or TCP. The reason is the combination of high latency, caused by the geostationary satellite link, and frequent, correlated packet losses caused by the local wireless terrestrial link. In fact, GEO satellites are placed in equatorial orbit at 36,000 km altitude, which takes the radio signal about 250 ms to travel up and down. Satellite systems exhibit low packet loss most of the time, with typical project constraints of 10−8 bit error rate 99% of the time, which translates into a packet error rate of 10−4, except for a few days a year. Wi-Fi links, on the other hand, have quite different characteristics. While the delay introduced by the MAC level is in the order of the milliseconds, and is consequently too small to affect most applications, its packet loss characteristics are generally far from negligible. In fact, multipath fading, interference and collisions affect most environments, causing correlated packet losses: this means that often more than one packet at a time is lost for a single fading even

IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN traffic analysis: a cross-layer approach

textThe deployment of broadband wireless data networks, e.g., wireless local area networks (WLANs) [29], experienced tremendous growth in the last several years, and this trend is continuously gaining momentum. In fact, WLAN is becoming an indispensable component of the modern telecommunication infrastructure. Despite this optimistic outlook, however, little is known about the impact of the wireless channel on the characteristics of WLAN traffic. This dissertation characterizes the correlation structures of WLAN channel with traffic statistics from a cross-layer point of view, and provides new measurement methodologies and statistical models for WLAN networks. Currently WLAN standards are designed within the paradigm of the layered network architecture. For example, the architecture of IEEE 802.11 vii is almost identical to the Ethernet. However, wireless networks are fundamentally different from their wired peers due to the shift of transmission media from cables to over-the-air radio waves. This transition exposes wireless systems to the influence of radio propagation, and more importantly, to the temporal and spacial fluctuations of the radio channel that can actually be propagated up to upper layers. However, the current WLAN architecture isolates network layers, and largely ignores this impact. Therefore, we believe that a cross-layer based approach is necessary to understand and reflect this underlying impact of the channel to the upper layers of the network, especially in relation to WLAN traffic behavior. Measurement is one of the fundamental tools used to quantify radio propagation. As part of this dissertation, a complete framework for a measurement methodology, including hardware, software, and measurement procedures, is established. Characteristics of the propagation channel are estimated from measurement data, and the channel knowledge is applied to the upper layers for more realistic and accurate modeling. In WLAN environments, knowledge of the traffic characteristics is essential for proper network provisioning, and for improving the performance of the IEEE 802.11 standard and network devices, e.g., to design improved MAC schemes, or to build better buffer scheduling algorithms with channel knowledge, etc. Built upon extensive WLAN traffic traces, this dissertation work presents cross-layer models for WLAN throughput predictions, traffic statistics, and link layer characteristics. viii The main goal of this dissertation work is to experiment with and develop new methods for identifying channel characteristics. Thereby utilizing this knowledge, we show how to predict and improve WLAN performance. Within the framework of the developed cross-layer measurement methodology, we conducted extensive measurements in different physical environments and different settings such as office buildings and stores, and (1) show that the impact of the propagation channel can be quantified by using simple large scale channel metric (throughput over longer period of time), and (2) also present the existence of a Doppler effect within today’s WLAN packet traffic at sub-second time scales. We also show the real-world WLAN usage pattern from our measurement results. From this data, we conclude that the key issues to study WLAN networks include accurate site-specific propagation channel modeling and real-time autonomous traffic control.Electrical and Computer Engineerin

Mobile Networks

The growth in the use of mobile networks has come mainly with the third generation systems and voice traffic. With the current third generation and the arrival of the 4G, the number of mobile users in the world will exceed the number of landlines users. Audio and video streaming have had a significant increase, parallel to the requirements of bandwidth and quality of service demanded by those applications. Mobile networks require that the applications and protocols that have worked successfully in fixed networks can be used with the same level of quality in mobile scenarios. Until the third generation of mobile networks, the need to ensure reliable handovers was still an important issue. On the eve of a new generation of access networks (4G) and increased connectivity between networks of different characteristics commonly called hybrid (satellite, ad-hoc, sensors, wired, WIMAX, LAN, etc.), it is necessary to transfer mechanisms of mobility to future generations of networks. In order to achieve this, it is essential to carry out a comprehensive evaluation of the performance of current protocols and the diverse topologies to suit the new mobility conditions

Low complexity channel models for approximating flat Rayleigh fading in network simulations

The intricate dependency of networking protocols upon the performance of the wireless channel motivates the investigation of network channel approximations for fading channels. Wireless networking protocols are increasingly being designed and evaluated with the assistance of networking simulators. While evaluating networking protocols such as medium access control, routing, and reliable transport, the network channel model, and its associated capacity, will drastically impact the achievable network throughput. Researcher relying upon simulation results must therefore use extreme caution to ensure the use of similar channel models when performing protocol comparisons. Some channel approximations have been created to mimic the behavior of a fading environment, however there exists little to no justification for these channel approximations. This dissertation addresses the need for a computationally efficient fading channel approximation for use in network simulations. A rigorous flat fading channel model was developed for use in accuracy measurements of channel approximations. The popular two-state Markov model channel approximation is analyzed and shown to perform poorly for low to moderate signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). Three novel channel approximations are derived, with multiple methods of parameter estimation. Each model is analyzed for both statistical performance and network performance. The final model is shown to achieve very accurate network throughput performance by achieving a very close matching of the frame run distributions. This work provides a rigorous evaluation of the popular two-state Markov model, and three novel low complexity channel models in both statistical accuracy and network throughput performance. The novel models are formed through attempts to match key statistical parameters of frame error run and good frame run statistics. It is shown that only matching key parameters is insufficient to achieve an acceptable channel approximation and that it is necessary to approximate the distribution of frame error duration and good frame run duration. The final novel channel approximation, the three-state run-length model, is shown to achieve a good approximation of the desired distributions when some key statistical parameters are matched

Robotic Wireless Sensor Networks

In this chapter, we present a literature survey of an emerging, cutting-edge, and multi-disciplinary field of research at the intersection of Robotics and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) which we refer to as Robotic Wireless Sensor Networks (RWSN). We define a RWSN as an autonomous networked multi-robot system that aims to achieve certain sensing goals while meeting and maintaining certain communication performance requirements, through cooperative control, learning and adaptation. While both of the component areas, i.e., Robotics and WSN, are very well-known and well-explored, there exist a whole set of new opportunities and research directions at the intersection of these two fields which are relatively or even completely unexplored. One such example would be the use of a set of robotic routers to set up a temporary communication path between a sender and a receiver that uses the controlled mobility to the advantage of packet routing. We find that there exist only a limited number of articles to be directly categorized as RWSN related works whereas there exist a range of articles in the robotics and the WSN literature that are also relevant to this new field of research. To connect the dots, we first identify the core problems and research trends related to RWSN such as connectivity, localization, routing, and robust flow of information. Next, we classify the existing research on RWSN as well as the relevant state-of-the-arts from robotics and WSN community according to the problems and trends identified in the first step. Lastly, we analyze what is missing in the existing literature, and identify topics that require more research attention in the future