Distributed QoS Guarantees for Realtime Traffic in Ad Hoc Networks

In this paper, we propose a new cross-layer framework, named QPART ( QoS br>rotocol for Adhoc Realtime Traffic), which provides QoS guarantees to real-time multimedia applications for wireless ad hoc networks. By adapting the contention window sizes at the MAC layer, QPART schedules packets of flows according to their unique QoS requirements. QPART implements priority-based admission control and conflict resolution to ensure that the requirements of admitted realtime flows is smaller than the network capacity. The novelty of QPART is that it is robust to mobility and variances in channel capacity and imposes no control message overhead on the network

Model checking medium access control for sensor networks

We describe verification of S-MAC, a medium access control protocol designed for wireless sensor networks, by means of the PRISM model checker. The S-MAC protocol is built on top of the IEEE 802.11 standard for wireless ad hoc networks and, as such, it uses the same randomised backoff procedure as a means to avoid collision. In order to minimise energy consumption, in S-MAC, nodes are periodically put into a sleep state. Synchronisation of the sleeping schedules is necessary for the nodes to be able to communicate. Intuitively, energy saving obtained through a periodic sleep mechanism will be at the expense of performance. In previous work on S-MAC verification, a combination of analytical techniques and simulation has been used to confirm the correctness of this intuition for a simplified (abstract) version of the protocol in which the initial schedules coordination phase is assumed correct. We show how we have used the PRISM model checker to verify the behaviour of S-MAC and compare it to that of IEEE 802.11

RCFD: A Novel Channel Access Scheme for Full-Duplex Wireless Networks Based on Contention in Time and Frequency Domains

In the last years, the advancements in signal processing and integrated circuits technology allowed several research groups to develop working prototypes of in-band full-duplex wireless systems. The introduction of such a revolutionary concept is promising in terms of increasing network performance, but at the same time poses several new challenges, especially at the MAC layer. Consequently, innovative channel access strategies are needed to exploit the opportunities provided by full-duplex while dealing with the increased complexity derived from its adoption. In this direction, this paper proposes RTS/CTS in the Frequency Domain (RCFD), a MAC layer scheme for full-duplex ad hoc wireless networks, based on the idea of time-frequency channel contention. According to this approach, different OFDM subcarriers are used to coordinate how nodes access the shared medium. The proposed scheme leads to efficient transmission scheduling with the result of avoiding collisions and exploiting full-duplex opportunities. The considerable performance improvements with respect to standard and state-of-the-art MAC protocols for wireless networks are highlighted through both theoretical analysis and network simulations.Comment: Submitted at IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1605.0971

Backoff as Performance improvements Algorithms - A Comprehenssive Review

As a significant part of the Media Access Control protocol, the backoff algorithm purpose is to minimize number of collisions if not totally avoid any collision in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, in the case of contention between nodes to access a channel. Researchers have proposed many algorithms for backoff to enhance the network performance and improve it. This paper aims at exploring the main and most studied backoff algorithms and how do these algorithms lead to an enhancement of the MANETs performance. This paper also compares between the algorithms proposed in the literature and evaluates to what extent they have affected the performance and enhance it

Is Our Model for Contention Resolution Wrong?

Randomized binary exponential backoff (BEB) is a popular algorithm for coordinating access to a shared channel. With an operational history exceeding four decades, BEB is currently an important component of several wireless standards. Despite this track record, prior theoretical results indicate that under bursty traffic (1) BEB yields poor makespan and (2) superior algorithms are possible. To date, the degree to which these findings manifest in practice has not been resolved. To address this issue, we examine one of the strongest cases against BEB: $n$ packets that simultaneously begin contending for the wireless channel. Using Network Simulator 3, we compare against more recent algorithms that are inspired by BEB, but whose makespan guarantees are superior. Surprisingly, we discover that these newer algorithms significantly underperform. Through further investigation, we identify as the culprit a flawed but common abstraction regarding the cost of collisions. Our experimental results are complemented by analytical arguments that the number of collisions -- and not solely makespan -- is an important metric to optimize. We believe that these findings have implications for the design of contention-resolution algorithms.Comment: Accepted to the 29th ACM Symposium on Parallelism in Algorithms and Architectures (SPAA 2017

On backoff mechanisms for wireless Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Since their emergence within the past decade, which has seen wireless networks being adapted to enable mobility, wireless networks have become increasingly popular in the world of computer research. A Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) is a collection of mobile nodes dynamically forming a temporary network without the use of any existing network infrastructure. MANETs have received significant attention in recent years due to their easiness to setup and to their potential applications in many domains. Such networks can be useful in situations where there is not enough time or resource to configure a wired network. Ad hoc networks are also used in military operations where the units are randomly mobile and a central unit cannot be used for synchronization. The shared media used by wireless networks, grant exclusive rights for a node to transmit a packet. Access to this media is controlled by the Media Access Control (MAC) protocol. The Backoff mechanism is a basic part of a MAC protocol. Since only one transmitting node uses the channel at any given time, the MAC protocol must suspend other nodes while the media is busy. In order to decide the length of node suspension, a backoff mechanism is installed in the MAC protocol. The choice of backoff mechanism should consider generating backoff timers which allow adequate time for current transmissions to finish and, at the same time, avoid unneeded idle time that leads to redundant delay in the network. Moreover, the backoff mechanism used should decide the suitable action to be taken in case of repeated failures of a node to attain the media. Further, the mechanism decides the action needed after a successful transmission since this action affects the next time backoff is needed. The Binary exponential Backoff (BEB) is the backoff mechanisms that MANETs have adopted from Ethernet. Similar to Ethernet, MANETs use a shared media. Therefore, the standard MAC protocol used for MANETs uses the standard BEB backoff algorithms. The first part of this work, presented as Chapter 3 of this thesis, studies the effects of changing the backoff behaviour upon a transmission failure or after a successful transmission. The investigation has revealed that using different behaviours directly affects both network throughput and average packet delay. This result indicates that BEB is not the optimal backoff mechanism for MANETs. Up until this research started, no research activity has focused on studying the major parameters of MANETs. These parameters are the speed at which nodes travel inside the network area, the number of nodes in the network and the data size generated per second. These are referred to as mobility speed, network size and traffic load respectively. The investigation has reported that changes made to these parameters values have a major effect on network performance. Existing research on backoff algorithms for MANETs mainly focuses on using external information, as opposed to information available from within the node, to decide the length of backoff timers. Such information includes network traffic load, transmission failures of other nodes and the total number of nodes in the network. In a mobile network, acquiring such information is not feasible at all times. To address this point, the second part of this thesis proposes new backoff algorithms to use with MANETs. These algorithms use internal information only to make their decisions. This part has revealed that it is possible to achieve higher network throughput and less average packet delay under different values of the parameters mentioned above without the use of any external information. This work proposes two new backoff algorithms. The Optimistic Linear-Exponential Backoff, (OLEB), and the Pessimistic Linear-Exponential Backoff (PLEB). In OLEB, the exponential backoff is combined with linear increment behaviour in order to reduce redundant long backoff times, during which the media is available and the node is still on backoff status, by implementing less dramatic increments in the early backoff stages. PLEB is also a combination of exponential and linear increment behaviours. However, the order in which linear and exponential behaviours are used is the reverse of that in OLEB. The two algorithms have been compared with existing work. Results of this research report that PLEB achieves higher network throughput for large numbers of nodes (e.g. 50 nodes and over). Moreover, PLEB achieves higher network throughput with low mobility speed. As for average packet delay, PLEB significantly improves average packet delay for large network sizes especially when combined with high traffic rate and mobility speed. On the other hand, the measurements of network throughput have revealed that for small networks of 10 nodes, OLEB has higher throughput than existing work at high traffic rates. For a medium network size of 50 nodes, OLEB also achieves higher throughput. Finally, at a large network size of 100 nodes, OLEB reaches higher throughput at low mobility speed. Moreover, OLEB produces lower average packet delay than the existing algorithms at low mobility speed for a network size of 50 nodes. Finally, this work has studied the effect of choosing the behaviour changing point between linear and exponential increments in OLEB and PLEB. Results have shown that increasing the number of times in which the linear increment is used increases network throughput. Moreover, using larger linear increments increase network throughput

Improving Fairness and Utilisation in Ad Hoc Networks

Ad hoc networks represent the current de-facto alternative for infrastructure-less environments, due to their self-configuring and resilience characteristics. Ad hoc networks flexibility benefits, such as unrestrained computing, lack of centralisation, and ease of deployment at low costs, are tightly bound with relevant deficiencies such as limited resources and management difficulty. Ad hoc networks witnessed high attention from the research community due to the numerous challenges faced when deploying such a technology in real scenarios. Starting with the nature of the wireless environment, which raises significant transmission issues when compared with the wired counterpart, ad hoc networks require a different approach when addressing the data link problems. Further, the high packet loss due to wireless contention, independent of network congestion, requires a different approach when considering quality of service degradation and unfair channel resources distribution among competing flows. Although these issues have already been considered to some extent by researchers, there is still room to improve quality of service by reducing the effect of packet loss and fairly distributing the medium access among competing nodes. The aim of this thesis is to propose a set of mechanisms to alleviate the effect of packet loss and to improve fairness in ad hoc networks. A transport layer algorithm has been proposed to overcome the effects of hidden node collisions and to reduce the impact of wireless link contention by estimating the four hop delay and pacing packet transmissions accordingly. Furthermore, certain topologies have been identified, in which the standard IEEE 802.11 faces degradation in channel utilisation and unfair bandwidth allocation. Three link layer mechanisms have been proposed to tackle the challenges the IEEE 802.11 faces in the identified scenarios to impose fairness in ad hoc networks through fairly distributing channel resources between competing nodes. These mechanisms are based on monitoring the collision rate and penalising the greedy nodes where no competing nodes can be detected but interference exists, monitoring traffic at source nodes to police access to the channel where only source nodes are within transmission range of each other, and using MAC layer acknowledgements to flag unfair bandwidth allocation in topologies where only the receivers are within transmission range of each other. The proposed mechanisms have been integrated into a framework designed to adapt and to dynamically select which mechanism to adopt, depending on the network topology. It is important to note that the proposed mechanisms and framework are not alternatives to the standard MAC protocol but are an enhancement and are triggered by the failure of the IEEE 802.11 protocol to distribute the channel resources fairly. All the proposed mechanisms have been validated through simulations and the results obtained from the experiments show that the proposed schemes fairly distribute channel resources fairly and outperform the performance of the IEEE 802.11 protocol in terms of channel utilisation as well as fairness