On the synergy between adaptive physical layer and multiple-access control for integrated voice and data services in a cellular wireless network

In this paper, we propose a novel design to exploit the synergy between the multiple-access control (MAC) layer and the physical layer of a cellular wireless system with integrated voice and data services. As in a traditional design, the physical layer (channel encoder and modulator) is responsible for providing error protection for transmitting the packets over the hostile radio channel, while the MAC layer is responsible for allocating the precious bandwidth to the contending users for voice or data connections. However, a distinctive feature of our proposed design is that in the physical layer, a variable-rate adaptive channel encoder is employed to dynamically adjust the amount of forward error correction according to the time-varying wireless channel state such that the MAC layer, which is a reservation-based time-division multiple-access protocol, is able to make informed decisions as to bandwidth allocation. Specifically, based on the channel state information provided by the physical layer, the MAC protocol gives higher priority to users with better channel states. This novel synergistic mechanism between the two protocol layers can utilize the system bandwidth more effectively. The multiple-access performance of the proposed scheme is compared with two baseline systems. The first baseline system consists of the same reservation-based MAC protocol but with a traditional fixed-rate physical layer. The second system consists of the same reservation-based MAC protocol and the same channel adaptive physical layer, but without interaction between the two layers. All three protocols have a request queue, which stores the previous requests that survive the contention but are not allocated information slots. Our extensive simulation results demonstrate that significant performance gains are achieved through the exploitation of the synergy between the two protocol layers.published_or_final_versio

The Feasibility of ATM operations over high frequency radio and the viability of the ATM/HF architecture

High Frequency (HF) radio is still a vital part of communications networks because its low cost and long distance capabilities, and still plays important roles as primary, supplemental, or redundant backup systems. Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is increasingly becoming an important part of communications, especially with LAN Emulation (LANE) specifications. Add to this the importance and increasing interest and dependency upon wireless networking, and it becomes inevitable that research into mobile ATM networking over HF radio would be considered. To test the feasibility of ATM networking over HF radio it was decided that a simulation would be developed to collect some basic information on call blocking and throughput. In order to build the simulation it was necessary to have an architectural framework of a mobile ATM network operating over HF radio. ATM/HF (ATM over HF) is the proposed architecture. ATM/HF is a proposed architecture that provides for networking mobile ATM nodes such as ships, planes, and trucks, over HF radio. It is based upon a recommended 64 kHz bandwidth which allows for a 128 kbps data rate. The ATM/HF architecture utilizes three different Media Access Control (MAC) protocols for network startup and access from the various network states, and incorporates several recently proposed dynamic capabilities for control of bandwidth and the integration of voice, data, and video. The proposal provides frame and wireless ATM (WATM) packet structures and a reference model for flow of the cells from the ATM Adaptation Layer (AAL) through the radio. An important feature is the use of channels, called channelization, to increase both network capacity and distance. The simulation was built to represent an active network state with active nodes connecting and disconnecting calls in a dynamic way with explicit connection messages. The purpose of starting from this network state was to measure the call blocking and throughput of a single channel. Two user types were developed, one to represent telephone voice and the other to represent computer data traffic. By varying the number of users per node and by type, the level of call blocking and throughput could be changed. Graphing the levels it could be determined the maximum capacity a single channel could support and thus determine if ATM over HF radio is feasible. In addition, the same information was used to determine the viability of the ATM/HF architecture. Although the simulation did not incorporate all the dynamic features of the recommended protocols, it does dynamically assign slots, rearrange slots to utilize non-contiguous available slots, and adjust the data rate of computer connections to accommodate voice call requests. This was done to reduce the level of voice call blocking which became the determining factor in deciding feasibility. It was determined that mobile ATM networking over HF radio is possible since the voice call blocking of a single channel was at the 10% level, overall call blocking was at the 6% level, and throughput was at the 53% level. It was determined that a single channel could support six voice and a minimum of ten data users. Although throughput, which is defined as the number of available slot used, was lower than expected, the possibility exists for utilizing the unused slots by incorporating additional dynamic capabilities that would increase the number of users supportable by a single channel. Throughput can be also be increased by incorporating Available Bit Rate (ABR) and Unspecified Bit Rate (UBR) traffic. The call blocking and throughput levels prove that ATM/HF is a viable method for supporting ATM operations. Although the call blocking level achieved the voice call blocking level and exceeding the overall call blocking level, the throughput level shows that there is a lot of wasted bandwidth. Further study of the design is required to improve the throughput level. Further development of the simulation is required in order to test the MAC protocols and to test the effects of the Bit Error Rate and fading effects of HF radio. The final conclusion, however, is that ATM over HF radio is feasible, that ATM/HF is a viable architecture, and that further research should be conducted into both

A novel channel-adaptive uplink access control protocol for nomadic computing

We consider the uplink access control problem in a mobile nomadic computing system, which is based on a cellular phone network in that a user can use the mobile device to transmit voice or file data. This resource management problem is important because an efficient solution to uplink access control is critical for supporting a large user population with a reasonable level of quality of service (QoS). While there are a number of recently proposed protocols for uplink access control, these protocols possess a common drawback in that they do not adapt well to the burst error properties, which are inevitable in using wireless communication channels. In this paper, we propose a novel TDMA-based uplink access protocol, which employs a channel state dependent allocation strategy. Our protocol is motivated by two observations: 1) when channel state is bad, the throughput is low due to the large amount of FEC (forward error correction) or excessive ARQ (automatic repeated request) that is needed and 2) because of item 1, much of the mobile device's energy is wasted. The proposed protocol works closely with the underlying physical layer in that, through observing the channel state information (CSI) of each mobile device, the MAC protocol first segregates a set of users with good CSI from requests gathered in the request contention phase of an uplink frame. The protocol then judiciously allocates channel bandwidth to contending users based on their channel conditions. Simulation results indicate that the proposed protocol considerably outperforms five state-of-the-art protocols in terms of packet loss, delay, and throughput.published_or_final_versio

An efficient data transmission policy in an integrated voice-data ds-cdma network

CDMA schemes appear to be promising access techniques for coping with the requirements of third-generation mobile systems, mainly because of their flexibility. This paper proposes an adaptive S-ALOHA DS-CDMA access scheme as a method for integrating non-real time (i.e. Internet applications) and real-time (i.e. voice) services, by exploiting the potentials of CDMA under time-varying conditions. The adaptive component terminals autonomously change their transmission rate according to the total (voice+data) channel occupancy, so that the minimum possible data delay is almost always achieved.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Adaptive S-ALOHA CDMA as an alternative way of integrating services in mobile environments

Code-division multiple-access (CDMA) schemes appear to be very promising access techniques for coping with the requirements of third-generation mobile systems, mainly because of their flexibility. This paper proposes an adaptive S-ALOHA DS-CDMA access scheme as a method for integrating nonreal-time (i.e., Internet applications) and real-time (i.e., voice) services in a multicell scenario by exploiting the potentials of CDMA under time-varying channel load conditions. The adaptive component makes data terminals autonomously change their transmission rate according to the total (voice+data) channel occupancy, so that the minimum possible data delay, which can be analytically obtained by defining a birth-death process, is almost always achieved. Moreover, by means of a simplified cellular model, the proposed algorithm revealed the same behavior, i.e., it tries to select the most suitable transmission rate at any time slot, when it is affected by intercell interference and even by power control imperfections. Finally, in order to gain more insight into the potentials of such an access strategy, the adaptive S-ALOHA CDMA scheme is then compared to a reservation time-division multiple-access (TDMA)-based protocol (PRMA++), showing the benefits of the CDMA-based solution in terms of capacity, flexibility, and data delay performance.Peer Reviewe

Quality of Service over Specific Link Layers: state of the art report

The Integrated Services concept is proposed as an enhancement to the current Internet architecture, to provide a better Quality of Service (QoS) than that provided by the traditional Best-Effort service. The features of the Integrated Services are explained in this report. To support Integrated Services, certain requirements are posed on the underlying link layer. These requirements are studied by the Integrated Services over Specific Link Layers (ISSLL) IETF working group. The status of this ongoing research is reported in this document. To be more specific, the solutions to provide Integrated Services over ATM, IEEE 802 LAN technologies and low-bitrate links are evaluated in detail. The ISSLL working group has not yet studied the requirements, that are posed on the underlying link layer, when this link layer is wireless. Therefore, this state of the art report is extended with an identification of the requirements that are posed on the underlying wireless link, to provide differentiated Quality of Service

Final report on the evaluation of RRM/CRRM algorithms

Deliverable public del projecte EVERESTThis deliverable provides a definition and a complete evaluation of the RRM/CRRM algorithms selected in D11 and D15, and evolved and refined on an iterative process. The evaluation will be carried out by means of simulations using the simulators provided at D07, and D14.Preprin

A quantitative comparison of multiple access control protocols for wireless ATM

The multiple access control (MAC) problem in a wireless network has intrigued researchers for years. For a broad-band wireless network such as wireless ATM, an effective MAC protocol is very much desired because efficient allocation of channel bandwidth is imperative in accommodating a large user population with satisfactory quality of service. Indeed, MAC protocols for a wireless ATM network in which user traffic requirements are highly heterogeneous (classified into CBR, VBR, and ABR), are even more intricate to design. Considerable research efforts expended in tackling the problem have resulted in a myriad of MAC protocols. While each protocol is individually shown to be effective by the respective designers, it is unclear how these different protocols compare against each other on a unified basis. In this paper, we quantitatively compare seven recently proposed TDMA-based MAC protocols for integrated wireless data and voice services. We first propose a taxonomy of TDMA-based protocols, from which we carefully select seven protocols, namely SCAMA, DTDMA/VR, DTDMA/PR, DQRUMA, DPRMA, DSA++, and PRMA/DA, such that they are devised based on rather orthogonal design philosophies. The objective of our comparison is to highlight the merits and demerits of different protocol designs.published_or_final_versio

A performance study of multiple access control protocols for wireless multimedia services

The multiple access control (MAC) problem in a wireless network has intrigued researchers for years. For a broadband wireless multimedia network such as wireless ATM, an effective MAC protocol is very much desired because efficient allocation of channel bandwidth is imperative in accommodating a large user population with satisfactory quality of service. Indeed, MAC protocols for a wireless ATM network, in which user traffic requirements are highly heterogeneous (classified into CBR, VBR, and ABR), are even more intricate to design. Considerable research efforts expended in tackling the problem have resulted in a myriad of MAC protocols. While each protocol is individually shown to be effective by the respective designers, it is unclear how these different protocols compare against each other on a unified basis. We quantitatively compare seven previously proposed TDMA-based MAC protocols for integrated wireless data and voice services. We first propose a taxonomy of TDMA-based protocols, from which we carefully select seven protocols, namely SCAMA, DTDMA/VR, DTDMA/PR, D4RUMA, DPRMA, DSA++, and PRMA/DA, such that they are devised based on rather orthogonal design philosophies. The objective of our comparison is to highlight the merits and demerits of different protocol designs.published_or_final_versio