Analysis of Multiple Flows using Different High Speed TCP protocols on a General Network

We develop analytical tools for performance analysis of multiple TCP flows (which could be using TCP CUBIC, TCP Compound, TCP New Reno) passing through a multi-hop network. We first compute average window size for a single TCP connection (using CUBIC or Compound TCP) under random losses. We then consider two techniques to compute steady state throughput for different TCP flows in a multi-hop network. In the first technique, we approximate the queues as M/G/1 queues. In the second technique, we use an optimization program whose solution approximates the steady state throughput of the different flows. Our results match well with ns2 simulations.Comment: Submitted to Performance Evaluatio

Asymptotic Approximations for TCP Compound

In this paper, we derive an approximation for throughput of TCP Compound connections under random losses. Throughput expressions for TCP Compound under a deterministic loss model exist in the literature. These are obtained assuming the window sizes are continuous, i.e., a fluid behaviour is assumed. We validate this model theoretically. We show that under the deterministic loss model, the TCP window evolution for TCP Compound is periodic and is independent of the initial window size. We then consider the case when packets are lost randomly and independently of each other. We discuss Markov chain models to analyze performance of TCP in this scenario. We use insights from the deterministic loss model to get an appropriate scaling for the window size process and show that these scaled processes, indexed by p, the packet error rate, converge to a limit Markov chain process as p goes to 0. We show the existence and uniqueness of the stationary distribution for this limit process. Using the stationary distribution for the limit process, we obtain approximations for throughput, under random losses, for TCP Compound when packet error rates are small. We compare our results with ns2 simulations which show a good match.Comment: Longer version for NCC 201

The Dynamics of Internet Traffic: Self-Similarity, Self-Organization, and Complex Phenomena

The Internet is the most complex system ever created in human history. Therefore, its dynamics and traffic unsurprisingly take on a rich variety of complex dynamics, self-organization, and other phenomena that have been researched for years. This paper is a review of the complex dynamics of Internet traffic. Departing from normal treatises, we will take a view from both the network engineering and physics perspectives showing the strengths and weaknesses as well as insights of both. In addition, many less covered phenomena such as traffic oscillations, large-scale effects of worm traffic, and comparisons of the Internet and biological models will be covered.Comment: 63 pages, 7 figures, 7 tables, submitted to Advances in Complex System

Queues with Congestion-dependent Feedback

This dissertation expands the theory of feedback queueing systems and applies a number of these models to a performance analysis of the Transmission Control Protocol, a flow control protocol commonly used in the Internet

Congestion Control and Routing over Challenged Networks

This dissertation is a study on the design and analysis of novel, optimal routing and rate control algorithms in wireless, mobile communication networks. Congestion control and routing algorithms upto now have been designed and optimized for wired or wireless mesh networks. In those networks, optimal algorithms (optimal in the sense that either the throughput is maximized or delay is minimized, or the network operation cost is minimized) can be engineered based on the classic time scale decomposition assumption that the dynamics of the network are either fast enough so that these algorithms essentially see the average or slow enough that any changes can be tracked to allow the algorithms to adapt over time. However, as technological advancements enable integration of ever more mobile nodes into communication networks, any rate control or routing algorithms based, for example, on averaging out the capacity of the wireless mobile link or tracking the instantaneous capacity will perform poorly. The common element in our solution to engineering efficient routing and rate control algorithms for mobile wireless networks is to make the wireless mobile links seem as if they are wired or wireless links to all but few nodes that directly see the mobile links (either the mobiles or nodes that can transmit to or receive from the mobiles) through an appropriate use of queuing structures at these selected nodes. This approach allows us to design end-to-end rate control or routing algorithms for wireless mobile networks so that neither averaging nor instantaneous tracking is necessary

A study of the applicability of software-defined networking in industrial networks

173 p.Las redes industriales interconectan sensores y actuadores para llevar a cabo funciones de monitorización, control y protección en diferentes entornos, tales como sistemas de transporte o sistemas de automatización industrial. Estos sistemas ciberfísicos generalmente están soportados por múltiples redes de datos, ya sean cableadas o inalámbricas, a las cuales demandan nuevas prestaciones, de forma que el control y gestión de tales redes deben estar acoplados a las condiciones del propio sistema industrial. De este modo, aparecen requisitos relacionados con la flexibilidad, mantenibilidad y adaptabilidad, al mismo tiempo que las restricciones de calidad de servicio no se vean afectadas. Sin embargo, las estrategias de control de red tradicionales generalmente no se adaptan eficientemente a entornos cada vez más dinámicos y heterogéneos.Tras definir un conjunto de requerimientos de red y analizar las limitaciones de las soluciones actuales, se deduce que un control provisto independientemente de los propios dispositivos de red añadiría flexibilidad a dichas redes. Por consiguiente, la presente tesis explora la aplicabilidad de las redes definidas por software (Software-Defined Networking, SDN) en sistemas de automatización industrial. Para llevar a cabo este enfoque, se ha tomado como caso de estudio las redes de automatización basadas en el estándar IEC 61850, el cual es ampliamente usado en el diseño de las redes de comunicaciones en sistemas de distribución de energía, tales como las subestaciones eléctricas. El estándar IEC 61850 define diferentes servicios y protocolos con altos requisitos en terminos de latencia y disponibilidad de la red, los cuales han de ser satisfechos mediante técnicas de ingeniería de tráfico. Como resultado, aprovechando la flexibilidad y programabilidad ofrecidas por las redes definidas por software, en esta tesis se propone una arquitectura de control basada en el protocolo OpenFlow que, incluyendo tecnologías de gestión y monitorización de red, permite establecer políticas de tráfico acorde a su prioridad y al estado de la red.Además, las subestaciones eléctricas son un ejemplo representativo de infraestructura crítica, que son aquellas en las que un fallo puede resultar en graves pérdidas económicas, daños físicos y materiales. De esta forma, tales sistemas deben ser extremadamente seguros y robustos, por lo que es conveniente la implementación de topologías redundantes que ofrezcan un tiempo de reacción ante fallos mínimo. Con tal objetivo, el estándar IEC 62439-3 define los protocolos Parallel Redundancy Protocol (PRP) y High-availability Seamless Redundancy (HSR), los cuales garantizan un tiempo de recuperación nulo en caso de fallo mediante la redundancia activa de datos en redes Ethernet. Sin embargo, la gestión de redes basadas en PRP y HSR es estática e inflexible, lo que, añadido a la reducción de ancho de banda debida la duplicación de datos, hace difícil un control eficiente de los recursos disponibles. En dicho sentido, esta tesis propone control de la redundancia basado en el paradigma SDN para un aprovechamiento eficiente de topologías malladas, al mismo tiempo que se garantiza la disponibilidad de las aplicaciones de control y monitorización. En particular, se discute cómo el protocolo OpenFlow permite a un controlador externo configurar múltiples caminos redundantes entre dispositivos con varias interfaces de red, así como en entornos inalámbricos. De esta forma, los servicios críticos pueden protegerse en situaciones de interferencia y movilidad.La evaluación de la idoneidad de las soluciones propuestas ha sido llevada a cabo, principalmente, mediante la emulación de diferentes topologías y tipos de tráfico. Igualmente, se ha estudiado analítica y experimentalmente cómo afecta a la latencia el poder reducir el número de saltos en las comunicaciones con respecto al uso de un árbol de expansión, así como balancear la carga en una red de nivel 2. Además, se ha realizado un análisis de la mejora de la eficiencia en el uso de los recursos de red y la robustez alcanzada con la combinación de los protocolos PRP y HSR con un control llevado a cabo mediante OpenFlow. Estos resultados muestran que el modelo SDN podría mejorar significativamente las prestaciones de una red industrial de misión crítica

Model based analysis of some high speed network issues

The study of complex problems in science and engineering today typically involves large scale data, huge number of large-scale scientific breakthroughs critically depends on large multi-disciplinary and geographically-dispersed research teams, where the high speed network becomes the integral part. To serve the ongoing bandwidth requirement and scalability of these networks, there has been a continuous evolution of different TCPs for high speed networks. Testing these protocols on a real network would be expensive, time consuming and more over not easily available to the researchers worldwide. Network simulation is well accepted and widely used method for performance evaluation, it is well known that packet-based simulators like NS2 and Opnet are not adequate in high speed also in large scale networks because of its inherent bottlenecks in terms of message overhead and execution time. In that case model based approach with the help of a set of coupled differential equations is preferred for simulations. This dissertation is focused on the key challenges on research and development of TCPs on high-speed network. To address these issues/challenges this thesis has three objectives: design an analytical simulation methodology; model behaviors of high speed networks and other components including TCP flows and queue using the analytical simulation method; analyze them and explore impacts and interrelationship among them. To decrease the simulation time and speed up the process of testing and development of high speed TCP, we present a scalable simulation methodology for high speed network. We present the fluid model equations for various high-speed TCP variants. With the help of these fluid model equations, the behavior of high-speed TCP variants under various scenarios and its effect on queue size variations are presented. High speed network is not feasible unless we understand effect of bottleneck buffer size on performance of these high-speed TCP variants. A fluid model is introduced to accommodate the new observations of synchronization and de-synchronization phenomena of packet losses at bottleneck link and a microscopic analysis is presented on different buffer sizes at drop-tail queuing scheme. The proposed model based methods promotes principal understanding of the future heterogeneous networks and accelerates protocol developments

Advanced modelling of adaptive bitrate selection

Nowadays, a typical video content provider serves a variety of platforms e.g. smartphones, web browsers, and smart TVs. Each of these platforms has specific requirements with respect to transmission and video quality. Moreover, since these devices are increasingly being used on-the-go, the environment within which most of these video streaming clients operate is both unreliable and time-varying. To cater for these heterogeneous requirements, content providers are increasingly adopting adaptive streaming services. Through such services, the quality of the video content received by a user is adapted to fit its specific requirements and capabilities. To adapt the video quality, system capabilities such as network capacity and memory have to be continuously monitored and measured, chunk requests have to be scheduled, and then the optimal video rate has to be decided. Each of these tasks is usually managed by a sub-module of the adaptive bitrate selection function. However, these sub-components interact in a non-trivial manner. For example, while on-off chunk scheduling helps to prevent buffer overflow, it negatively affects the TCP throughput. Hence, these complex interactions between these different sub-components of the adaptive streaming algorithm result in unnecessary rebufferings, undesirable variability, and sub-optimal video quality. To help simplify these interactions, this thesis develops several frameworks and models that define the relationships between the various components of the adaptive bitrate selection system. This includes deriving the valid system state space, which defines the state that an algorithm can be in at any given time, determining the allowable interactions between the various components, and identifying the video quality evolution rules that optimise QoE. Using this information, some state-of-the-art algorithms are improved and novel ones developed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The result of extensive evaluations conducted both within a real-world Internet environment and with network trace shows the proposed schemes help in reducing the convergence time, startup delay, and rebuffering events, while at the same time increasing both the average and the stability of the video quality. All this is obtained without any adverse impact on the fairness among the competing players