Some Results on the Statistics of Delay Terms in SR ARQ on Markov Channels

Abstract-In this paper we explore the packet delay statistics of a Selective Repeat ARQ scheme on a Discrete Time Markov Channel with non-instantaneous round trip delay. In particular, we are interested in obtaining considerations about the queueing delay of the process and also possible comparisons between different delay components. For this reason, we analyze in detail the impact of system parameters, such as the packet arrival rate and the packet error probability, on the terms which constitute the overall delay. Finally, we explore the connection of these numerical evaluations with the QoS requirements connected to delay for multimedia traffic

First-Passage Time and Large-Deviation Analysis for Erasure Channels with Memory

This article considers the performance of digital communication systems transmitting messages over finite-state erasure channels with memory. Information bits are protected from channel erasures using error-correcting codes; successful receptions of codewords are acknowledged at the source through instantaneous feedback. The primary focus of this research is on delay-sensitive applications, codes with finite block lengths and, necessarily, non-vanishing probabilities of decoding failure. The contribution of this article is twofold. A methodology to compute the distribution of the time required to empty a buffer is introduced. Based on this distribution, the mean hitting time to an empty queue and delay-violation probabilities for specific thresholds can be computed explicitly. The proposed techniques apply to situations where the transmit buffer contains a predetermined number of information bits at the onset of the data transfer. Furthermore, as additional performance criteria, large deviation principles are obtained for the empirical mean service time and the average packet-transmission time associated with the communication process. This rigorous framework yields a pragmatic methodology to select code rate and block length for the communication unit as functions of the service requirements. Examples motivated by practical systems are provided to further illustrate the applicability of these techniques.Comment: To appear in IEEE Transactions on Information Theor

Cross-layer performance control of wireless channels using active local profiles

To optimize performance of applications running over wireless channels state-of-the-art wireless access technologies incorporate a number of channel adaptation mechanisms. While these mechanisms are expected to operate jointly providing the best possible performance for current wireless channel and traffic conditions, their joint effect is often difficult to predict. To control functionality of various channel adaptation mechanisms a new cross-layer performance optimization system is sought. This system should be responsible for exchange of control information between different layers and further optimization of wireless channel performance. In this paper design of the cross-layer performance control system for wireless access technologies with dynamic adaptation of protocol parameters at different layers of the protocol stack is proposed. Functionalities of components of the system are isolated and described in detail. To determine the range of protocol parameters providing the best possible performance for a wide range of channel and arrival statistics the proposed system is analytically analyzed. Particularly, probability distribution functions of the number of lost frames and delay of a frame as functions of first- and second-order wireless channel and arrival statistics, automatic repeat request, forward error correction functionality, protocol data unit size at different layers are derived. Numerical examples illustrating performance of the whole system and its elements are provided. Obtained results demonstrate that the proposed system provide significant performance gains compared to static configuration of protocols

ARQ with Cumulative Feedback to Compensate for Burst Errors

We propose a cumulative feedback-based ARQ (CF ARQ) protocol for a sliding window of size 2 over packet erasure channels with unreliable feedback. We exploit a matrix signal-flow graph approach to analyze probability-generating functions of transmission and delay times. Contrasting its performance with that of the uncoded baseline scheme for ARQ, developed by Ausavapattanakun and Nosratinia, we demonstrate that CF ARQ can provide significantly less average delay under bursty feedback, and gains up to about 20% in terms of throughput. We also outline the benefits of CF ARQ under burst errors and asymmetric channel conditions. The protocol is more predictable across statistics, hence is more stable. This can help design robust systems when feedback is unreliable. This feature may be preferable for meeting the strict end-to-end latency and reliability requirements of future use cases of ultra-reliable low-latency communications in 5G, such as mission-critical communications and industrial control for critical control messaging.Comment: GLOBECOM'18. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1806.0577

Rate adaption using acknowledgement feedback in finite-state Markov channels with collisions

We investigate packet-by-packet rate adaptation so as to maximize the throughput. We consider a finite-state Markov channel (FSMC) with collisions, which models channel fading as well as collisions due to multi-user interference. To limit the amount of feedback data, we only use past packet acknowledgements (ACKs) and past rates as channel state information. The maximum achievable throughput is computationally prohibitive to determine, thus we employ a two-pronged approach. Firstly, we derive new upper bounds on the maximum achievable throughput, which are tighter than previously known ones. Secondly, we propose the particle-filter-based rate adaptation (PRA), which employs a particle filter to estimate the a posteriori channel distribution. The PRA can easily be implemented even when the number of available rates is large. Numerical studies show that the PRA performs within one dB of SNR to the proposed upper bounds for a slowly time-varying channel, even in the presence of multi-user interference

Studies on the performance of some ARQ schemes

This thesis consists of a summary part and seven published articles. All the articles are about performance analysis of ARQ schemes. Two of the publications study the performance of an ARQ scheme with packet combining, called the EARQ (extended ARQ) scheme. In the packet combining algorithm, the bitwise modulo-2 sum of two erroneous copies of a packet is computed to locate the errors. The packet combining algorithm involves a straightforward search procedure, the computational complexity of which easily becomes prohibitive. As a solution to this, a modified scheme is proposed, where the search procedure is attempted only when there are at most Nmax 1s at the output of the modulo-2 adder. In one article, time diversity was utilized, whereas space diversity reception was considered in the other work. The remaining five publications study the throughput performance of adaptive selective-repeat and go-back-N ARQ schemes, where the switching between the transmission modes is done based on the simple algorithm proposed by Y.-D. Yao in 1995. In this method, α contiguous NACKs or β contiguous ACKs indicate changes from 'good' to 'bad' or from 'bad' to 'good' channel conditions, respectively. The numbers α and β are the two design parameters of the adaptive scheme. The time-varying forward channel is modelled by two-state Markov chains, known as Gilbert-Elliott channel models. The states are characterized by bit error rates, packet error rates or fading parameters. The performance of the adaptive ARQ scheme is measured by its average throughput over all states of the system model, which is a Markov chain. A useful upper bound for the achievable average throughput is provided by the performance of an (assumed) ideal adaptive scheme which is always in the 'correct' transmission mode. The optimization of α and β is done based on minimizing the mean-square distance between the actual and the ideal performance curves. Methods of optimizing the packet size(s) used in the adaptive selective-repeat scheme are also proposed.reviewe