Service differentiation in OFDM-Based IEEE 802.16 networks

IEEE 802.16 network is widely viewed as a strong candidate solution for broadband wireless access systems. Various flexible mechanisms related to QoS provisioning have been specified for uplink traffic at the medium access control (MAC) layer in the standards. Among the mechanisms, bandwidth request scheme can be used to indicate and request bandwidth demands to the base station for different services. Due to the diverse QoS requirements of the applications, service differentiation (SD) is desirable for the bandwidth request scheme. In this paper, we propose several SD approaches. The approaches are based on the contention-based bandwidth request scheme and achieved by the means of assigning different channel access parameters and/or bandwidth allocation priorities to different services. Additionally, we propose effective analytical model to study the impacts of the SD approaches, which can be used for the configuration and optimization of the SD services. It is observed from simulations that the analytical model has high accuracy. Service can be efficiently differentiated with initial backoff window in terms of throughput and channel access delay. Moreover, the service differentiation can be improved if combined with the bandwidth allocation priority approach without adverse impacts on the overall system throughput

Performance Study of Bandwidth Request Mechanisms in IEEE 802.16e Networks

WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is the IEEE 802.16 standards-based wireless technology that provides fixed and mobile Internet access for Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN). The IEEE 802.16 std. includes medium access control (MAC) and physical (PHY) layer pecifications and is consider to be a promising technology. Bandwidth reservation is employed to provide quality of service (QoS) to guarantee different services specified in the standard. A bandwidth request/grant scheme is defined in the IEEE 802.16 standard. There are two types of bandwidth request (BR) mechanisms, i.e., polling and contention resolution, which are defined in the standard. As specified, connections belonging to scheduling classes of extended real-time polling service, non-real-time polling service, and best effort have options to make BRs via both mechanisms, depending on the scheduling decision made by the base station (BS). This paper attempts the comparative study of BR mechanisms for different service classes defined in the standard

Investigation of efficient resource allocation schemes for WiMAX networks

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Master of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University on 9 July 2008.WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a promising wireless technology with the aim of providing the last mile wireless broadband access designed for both fixed and mobile consumers as an alternative solution to the wired DSL and cable access schemes. The purpose of this research project is to investigate efficient resource allocation algorithms for WiMax. To achieve this goal, we investigate efficient PHY layer Partial Usage of SubCarriers (PUSC) allocation as well as MAC layer piggyback bandwidth request mechanisms. At the PHY layer we proposed improvements on the Uplink and Downlink PUSC subcarrier allocation scheme. For the Uplink PUSC we suggested a method by allocating different frequencies to neighbouring cells in combination with the Integer Frequency Reuse (IFR) and Fractional Frequency Reuse (FFR) in order to reduce interferences and collisions. The simulation results exhibit that collision rates can be reduced to zero for both IFR and FFR patterns with the proposed improvement by assuming that perfect power control is used in the system. In addition, there is no collision at cell edges. The results also show that FFR patterns achieve lower inter-cell interference and higher capacities as compared to the IFR patterns. For the Downlink PUSC we introduced an offset scheme with the purpose of increasing the number of users in the system. At the MAC layer we propose an improvement on the piggyback bandwidth request mechanism by increasing the size of the piggyback bandwidth request in order to reduce the number of bandwidth requests and hence improve the resource utilisation. The simulation results demonstrate that our improved scheme achieves higher throughput, less delay and packet loss rates as compared to the standardised piggyback bandwidth request mechanism

Delay analysis for wireless applications using a multiservice multiqueue processor sharing model

The ongoing development of wireless networks supporting multimedia applications requires service providers to efficiently deliver complex Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. The wide range of new applications in these networks significantly increases the difficulty of network design and dimensioning to meet QoS requirements. Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols affect QoS achieved by wireless networks. Research on analysis and performance evaluation is important for the efficient protocol design. As wireless networks feature scarce resources that are simultaneously shared by all users, processor sharing (PS) models were proposed for modelling resource sharing mechanisms in such systems. In this thesis, multi-priority MAC protocols are proposed for handling the various service traffic types. Then, an investigation of multiservice multiqueue PS models is undertaken to analyse the delay for some recently proposed wireless applications. We start with an introduction to MAC protocols for wireless networks which are specified in IEEE standards and then review scheduling algorithms which were proposed to work with the underlying MAC protocols to cooperatively achieve QoS goals. An overview of the relevant literature is given on PS models for performance analysis and evaluation of scheduling algorithms. We propose a multiservice multiqueue PS model using a scheduling scheme in multimedia wireless networks with a comprehensive description of the analytical solution. Firstly, we describe the existing multiqueue processor sharing (MPS) model, which uses a fixed service quantum at each queue, and correct a subtle incongruity in previous solutions presented in the literature. Secondly, a new scheduling framework is proposed to extend the previous MPS model to a general case. This newly proposed analytical approach is based on the idea that the service quantum arranged by a MAC scheduling controller to service data units can be priority-based. We obtain a closed-form expression for the mean delay of each service class in this model. In summary, our new approach simplifies MAC protocols for multimedia applications into an analytical model that includes more complex and realistic traffic models without compromising details of the protocol and significantly reduces the number of MAC headers, thus the overall average delay will be decreased. In response to using the studied multiservice multiqueue PS models, we apply the MPS model to two wireless applications: Push to Talk (PTT) service over GPRS/GSM networks and the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) networks. We investigate the uplink delay of PTT over traditional GPRS/GSM networks and the uplink delay for WiMAX Subscriber Station scheduler under a priority-based fair scheduling. MAC structures capable of supporting dynamically varying traffic are studied for the networks, especially, with the consideration of implementation issues. The model provides useful insights into the dynamic performance behaviours of GPRS/GSM and WiMAX networks with respect to various system parameters and comprehensive traffic conditions. We then evaluate the model under some different practical traffic scenarios. Through modelling of the operation of wireless access systems, under a variety of multimedia traffic, our analytical approaches provide practical analysis guidelines for wireless network dimensioning

Centralized Rate Allocation and Control in 802.11-based Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) built with commodity 802.11 radios are a cost-effective means of providing last mile broadband Internet access. Their multihop architecture allows for rapid deployment and organic growth of these networks. 802.11 radios are an important building block in WMNs. These low cost radios are readily available, and can be used globally in license-exempt frequency bands. However, the 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) medium access mechanism does not scale well in large multihop networks. This produces suboptimal behavior in many transport protocols, including TCP, the dominant transport protocol in the Internet. In particular, cross-layer interaction between DCF and TCP results in flow level unfairness, including starvation, with backlogged traffic sources. Solutions found in the literature propose distributed source rate control algorithms to alleviate this problem. However, this requires MAC-layer or transport-layer changes on all mesh routers. This is often infeasible in practical deployments. In wireline networks, router-assisted rate control techniques have been proposed for use alongside end-to-end mechanisms. We evaluate the feasibility of establishing similar centralized control via gateway mesh routers in WMNs. We find that commonly used router-assisted flow control schemes designed for wired networks fail in WMNs. This is because they assume that: (1) links can be scheduled independently, and (2) router queue buildups are sufficient for detecting congestion. These abstractions do not hold in a wireless network, rendering wired scheduling algorithms such as Fair Queueing (and its variants) and Active Queue Management (AQM) techniques ineffective as a gateway-enforceable solution in a WMN. We show that only non-work-conserving rate-based scheduling can effectively enforce rate allocation via a single centralized traffic-aggregation point. In this context we propose, design, and evaluate a framework of centralized, measurement-based, feedback-driven mechanisms that can enforce a rate allocation policy objective for adaptive traffic streams in a WMN. In this dissertation we focus on fair rate allocation requirements. Our approach does not require any changes to individual mesh routers. Further, it uses existing data traffic as capacity probes, thus incurring a zero control traffic overhead. We propose two mechanisms based on this approach: aggregate rate control (ARC) and per-flow rate control (PFRC). ARC limits the aggregate capacity of a network to the sum of fair rates for a given set of flows. We show that the resulting rate allocation achieved by DCF is approximately max-min fair. PFRC allows us to exercise finer-grained control over the rate allocation process. We show how it can be used to achieve weighted flow rate fairness. We evaluate the performance of these mechanisms using simulations as well as implementation on a multihop wireless testbed. Our comparative analysis show that our mechanisms improve fairness indices by a factor of 2 to 3 when compared with networks without any rate limiting, and are approximately equivalent to results achieved with distributed source rate limiting mechanisms that require software modifications on all mesh routers

Mathematical modelling of end-to-end packet delay in multi-hop wireless networks and their applications to qos provisioning

This thesis addresses the mathematical modelling of end-to-end packet delay for Quality of Service (QoS) provisioning in multi-hop wireless networks. The multi-hop wireless technology increases capacity and coverage in a cost-effective way and it has been standardised in the Fourth-Generation (4G) standards. The effective capacity model approximates end-to-end delay performances, including Complementary Cumulative Density Function (CCDF) of delay, average delay and jitter. This model is first tested using Internet traffic trace from a real gigabit Ethernet gateway. The effective capacity model is developed based on single-hop and continuous-time communication systems but a multi-hop wireless system is better described to be multi-hop and time-slotted. The thesis extends the effective capacity model by taking multi-hop and time-slotted concepts into account, resulting in two new mathematical models: the multi-hop effective capacity model for multi-hop networks and the mixed continuous/discrete-time effective capacity model for time-slotted networks. Two scenarios are considered to validate these two effective capacity-based models based on ideal wireless communications (the physical-layer instantaneous transmission rate is the Shannon channel capacity): 1) packets traverse multiple wireless network devices and 2) packets are transmitted to or received from a wireless network device every Transmission Time Interval (TTI). The results from these two scenarios consistently show that the new mathematical models developed in the thesis characterise end-to-end delay performances accurately. Accurate and efficient estimators for end-to-end packet delay play a key role in QoS provisioning in modern communication systems. The estimators from the new effective capacity-based models are directly tested in two systems, faithfully created using realistic simulation techniques: 1) the IEEE 802.16-2004 networks and 2) wireless tele-ultrasonography medical systems. The results show that the estimation and simulation results are in good agreement in terms of end-to-end delay performances

Energy efficiency in next generation wireless networks: methodologies, solutions and algorithms

Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) networks will offer in the forthcoming years multiple and differentiated services to users with high mobility requirements, connecting via portable or wearable devices which rely on the use of batteries by necessity. Since such devices consume a relatively large fraction of energy for transmitting/receiving data over-the-air, mechanisms are needed to reduce power consumption, in order to increase the lifetime of devices and hence improve user’s satisfaction. Next generation wireless network standards define power saving functions at the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, which allow user terminals to switch off the radio transceiver during open traffic sessions for greatest energy consumption reduction. However, enabling power saving usually increases the transmission latency, which can negatively affect the Quality of Service (QoS) experienced by users. On the other hand, imposing stringent QoS requirements may limit the amount of energy that can be saved. The IEEE 802.16e standard defines the sleep mode is power saving mechanism with the purpose of reducing energy consumption. Three different operation classes are provided, each one to serve different class of traffic: class I, best effort traffic, class II real time traffic and class III multicast traffic. Several aspects of the sleep mode are left unspecified, as it is usually done in standards, allowing manufacturers to implement their own proprietary solutions, thus gaining a competitive advantage over the rivals. The work of this thesis is aimed at verifying, the effectiveness of the power saving mechanism proposed into IEEE 802.16e standard, focusing on the mutual interaction between power saving and QoS support. Two types of delay constrained applications with different requirements are considered, i.e., Web and Voice over IP (VoIP). The performance is assessed via detailed packet-level simulation, with respect to several system parameters. To capture the relative contribution of all the factors on the energy- and QoS-related metrics, part of the evaluation is carried out by means of 2k · r! analysis. Our study shows that the sleep mode can achieve significant power consumption reduction, however, when real time traffic is considered a wise configuration of the parameters is mandatory in order to avoid unacceptable degradation of the QoS. Finally, based on the guidelines drawn through the analysis, we extend our contribution beyond a simple evaluation, proposing a power saving aware scheduling framework aimed at reducing further the energy consumption. Our framework integrates with existing scheduling policies that can pursue their original goals, e.g. maximizing throughput or fairness, while improving the energy efficiency of the user terminals. Its effectiveness is assessed through an extensive packet level simulation campaign

Cross-Layer Techniques for Efficient Medium Access in Wi-Fi Networks

IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) wireless networks share the wireless medium using a Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol. The MAC protocol is a central determiner of Wi-Fi networks’ efficiency–the fraction of the capacity available in the physical layer that Wi-Fi-equipped hosts can use in practice. The MAC protocol’s design is intended to allow senders to share the wireless medium fairly while still allowing high utilisation. This thesis develops techniques that allow Wi-Fi senders to send more data using fewer medium acquisitions, reducing the overhead of idle periods, and thus improving end-to-end goodput. Our techniques address the problems we identify with Wi-Fi’s status quo. Today’s commodity Linux Wi-Fi/IP software stack and Wi-Fi cards waste medium acquisitions as they fail to queue enough packets that would allow for effective sending of multiple frames per wireless medium acquisition. In addition, for bi-directional protocols such as TCP, TCP data and TCP ACKs contend for the wireless channel, wasting medium acquisitions (and thus capacity). Finally, the probing mechanism used for bit-rate adaptation in Wi-Fi networks increases channel acquisition overhead. We describe the design and implementation of Aggregate Aware Queueing (AAQ), a fair queueing discipline, that coordinates scheduling of frame transmission with the aggregation layer in the Wi-Fi stack, allowing more frames per channel acquisition. Furthermore, we describe Hierarchical Acknowledgments (HACK) and Transmission Control Protocol Acknowledgment Optimisation (TAO), techniques that reduce channel acquisitions for TCP flows, further improving goodput. Finally, we design and implement Aggregate Aware Rate Control (AARC), a bit-rate adaptation algorithm that reduces channel acquisition overheads incurred by the probing mechanism common in today’s commodity Wi-Fi systems. We implement our techniques on real Wi-Fi hardware to demonstrate their practicality, and measure their performance on real testbeds, using off-the-shelf commodity Wi-Fi hardware where possible, and software-defined radio hardware for those techniques that require modification of the Wi-Fi implementation unachievable on commodity hardware. The techniques described in this thesis offer up to 2x aggregate goodput improvement compared to the stock Linux Wi-Fi stack

Resource Allocation in Relay-based Satellite and Wireless Communication Networks

A two-level bandwidth allocation scheme is proposed for a slotted Time-Division Multiple Access high data rate relay satellite communication link to provide efficient and fair channel utilization. The long-term allocation is implemented to provide per-flow/per-user Quality-of-Service guarantees and shape the average behavior. The time-varying short-term allocation is determined by solving an optimal timeslot scheduling problem based on the requests and other parameters. Through extensive simulations, the performance of a suitable MAC protocol with two-level bandwidth allocation is analyzed and compared with that of the existing static fixed-assignment scheme in terms of end-to-end delay and successful throughput. It is also shown that pseudo-proportional fairness is achieved for our hybrid protocol. We study rate control systems with heterogeneous time-varying propagation delays, based on analytic fluid flow models composed of first-order delay-differential equations. Both single-flow and multi-flow system models are analyzed, with special attention paid to the Mitra-Seery algorithm. The stationary solutions are investigated. For the fluctuating solutions, their dynamic behavior is analyzed in detail, analytically and numerically, in terms of amplitude, transient behavior, fairness and adaptability, etc.. Especially the effects of heterogeneous time-varying delays are investigated. It is shown that with proper parameter design the system can achieve stable behavior with close to pointwise proportional fairness among flows. Finally we investigate the resource allocation in 802.16j multi-hop relay systems with rate fairness constraints for two mutually exclusive options: transparent and non-transparent relay systems (T-RS and NT-RS). Single-Input Single-Output and Multi-Input Multi-Output antenna systems are considered in the links between the Base Station (BS) and Relay Stations (RS). 1 and 3 RSs per sector are considered. The Mobile Station (MS) association rule, which determines the access station (BS or RS) for each MS, is also studied. Two rules: Highest MCS scheme with the highest modulation and coding rate, and Highest (Mod) ESE scheme with the highest (modified) effective spectrum efficiency, are studied along with the optimal rule that maximizes system capacity with rate fairness constraints. Our simulation results show that the highest capacity is always achieved by NT-RS with 3 RSs per sector in distributed scheduling mode, and that the Highest (Mod) ESE scheme performs closely to the optimal rule in terms of system capacity