Cross-layer signalling and middleware: a survey for inelastic soft real-time applications in MANETs

This paper provides a review of the different cross-layer design and protocol tuning approaches that may be used to meet a growing need to support inelastic soft real-time streams in MANETs. These streams are characterised by critical timing and throughput requirements and low packet loss tolerance levels. Many cross-layer approaches exist either for provision of QoS to soft real-time streams in static wireless networks or to improve the performance of real and non-real-time transmissions in MANETs. The common ground and lessons learned from these approaches, with a view to the potential provision of much needed support to real-time applications in MANETs, is therefore discussed

Exploiting the power of multiplicity: a holistic survey of network-layer multipath

The Internet is inherently a multipath network: For an underlying network with only a single path, connecting various nodes would have been debilitatingly fragile. Unfortunately, traditional Internet technologies have been designed around the restrictive assumption of a single working path between a source and a destination. The lack of native multipath support constrains network performance even as the underlying network is richly connected and has redundant multiple paths. Computer networks can exploit the power of multiplicity, through which a diverse collection of paths is resource pooled as a single resource, to unlock the inherent redundancy of the Internet. This opens up a new vista of opportunities, promising increased throughput (through concurrent usage of multiple paths) and increased reliability and fault tolerance (through the use of multiple paths in backup/redundant arrangements). There are many emerging trends in networking that signify that the Internet's future will be multipath, including the use of multipath technology in data center computing; the ready availability of multiple heterogeneous radio interfaces in wireless (such as Wi-Fi and cellular) in wireless devices; ubiquity of mobile devices that are multihomed with heterogeneous access networks; and the development and standardization of multipath transport protocols such as multipath TCP. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive survey of the literature on network-layer multipath solutions. We will present a detailed investigation of two important design issues, namely, the control plane problem of how to compute and select the routes and the data plane problem of how to split the flow on the computed paths. The main contribution of this paper is a systematic articulation of the main design issues in network-layer multipath routing along with a broad-ranging survey of the vast literature on network-layer multipathing. We also highlight open issues and identify directions for future work

ROAM: supporting safety critical applications in MANETs with cross-layer middleware

Provision of instantaneous, mobile and dependable media communications in military and disaster scenarios must overcome certain wireless network issues: lack of reliable existing infrastructure, immutability of safety-certified protocols and layer-2 dynamics with contributing factors including hidden transmitters and fading channels. This extended abstract investigates a cross-layer methodology to provide timely MANET communications through optimal channel selection and dynamic contention reduction, without protocol modification. This is done using ROAM: a new Real-time Optimised Ad hoc Middleware based architecture that has been implemented and validated in the ns2-MIRACLE simulator

Cross-Layer Optimization for Video-streaming Transmission with QoS over Ad Hoc Networks: A Holistic Approach

In this paper we present ViStA-XL, a Cross-Layer (XL) design aiming to optimize the overall performance of videostreaming services over Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs). The idea relies on applying optimization strategies to different network layers in a holistic way. In ViStA-XL, a real-time Optimizer (XLO) periodically gathers information of the state of node and network from different layers of the stack of protocols, takes optimization decisions, and then modifies some parameters of the protocols accordingly. In addition, our proposal exploits path diversity through MM-DSR (Multipath MultimediaDynamic Source Routing) protocol as a means to reinforce the Quality of Service (QoS) provision to multi-layer encoded videostreaming applications, by protecting the most important video information packets, balancing the load and decreasing the endto-end delay. To show the advantages of our approach, we have developed and tested an algorithm based on ViStA-XL. Simulation results show that our proposed network design can improve the performance of video-streaming transmissions over MANETs in spite of frequent changes in network and node operating conditions

A Routing Delay Predication Based on Packet Loss and Explicit Delay Acknowledgement for Congestion Control in MANET

In Mobile Ad hoc Networks congestion control and prevention are demanding because of network node mobility and dynamic topology. Congestion occurs primarily due to the large traffic volume in the case of data flow because the rate of inflow of data traffic is higher than the rate of data packets on the node. This alteration in sending rate results in routing delays and low throughput. The Rate control is a significant concern in streaming applications, especially in wireless networks. The TCP friendly rate control method is extensively recognized as a rate control mechanism for wired networks, which is effective in minimizing packet loss (PL) in the event of congestion. In this paper, we propose a routing delay prediction based on PL and Explicit Delay Acknowledgement (EDA) mechanism for data rate and congestion control in MANET to control data rate to minimize the loss of packets and improve the throughput. The experiment is performed over a reactive routing protocol to reduce the packet loss, jitter, and improvisation of throughput

A cross-layer middleware architecture for time and safety critical applications in MANETs

Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) can be deployed instantaneously and adaptively, making them highly suitable to military, medical and disaster-response scenarios. Using real-time applications for provision of instantaneous and dependable communications, media streaming, and device control in these scenarios is a growing research field. Realising timing requirements in packet delivery is essential to safety-critical real-time applications that are both delay- and loss-sensitive. Safety of these applications is compromised by packet loss, both on the network and by the applications themselves that will drop packets exceeding delay bounds. However, the provision of this required Quality of Service (QoS) must overcome issues relating to the lack of reliable existing infrastructure, conservation of safety-certified functionality. It must also overcome issues relating to the layer-2 dynamics with causal factors including hidden transmitters and fading channels. This thesis proposes that bounded maximum delay and safety-critical application support can be achieved by using cross-layer middleware. Such an approach benefits from the use of established protocols without requiring modifications to safety-certified ones. This research proposes ROAM: a novel, adaptive and scalable cross-layer Real-time Optimising Ad hoc Middleware framework for the provision and maintenance of performance guarantees in self-configuring MANETs. The ROAM framework is designed to be scalable to new optimisers and MANET protocols and requires no modifications of protocol functionality. Four original contributions are proposed: (1) ROAM, a middleware entity abstracts information from the protocol stack using application programming interfaces (APIs) and that implements optimisers to monitor and autonomously tune conditions at protocol layers in response to dynamic network conditions. The cross-layer approach is MANET protocol generic, using minimal imposition on the protocol stack, without protocol modification requirements. (2) A horizontal handoff optimiser that responds to time-varying link quality to ensure optimal and most robust channel usage. (3) A distributed contention reduction optimiser that reduces channel contention and related delay, in response to detection of the presence of a hidden transmitter. (4) A feasibility evaluation of the ROAM architecture to bound maximum delay and jitter in a comprehensive range of ns2-MIRACLE simulation scenarios that demonstrate independence from the key causes of network dynamics: application setting and MANET configuration; including mobility or topology. Experimental results show that ROAM can constrain end-to-end delay, jitter and packet loss, to support real-time applications with critical timing requirements

Recent Developments on Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks and Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks

This book presents collective works published in the recent Special Issue (SI) entitled "Recent Developments on Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks and Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks”. These works expose the readership to the latest solutions and techniques for MANETs and VANETs. They cover interesting topics such as power-aware optimization solutions for MANETs, data dissemination in VANETs, adaptive multi-hop broadcast schemes for VANETs, multi-metric routing protocols for VANETs, and incentive mechanisms to encourage the distribution of information in VANETs. The book demonstrates pioneering work in these fields, investigates novel solutions and methods, and discusses future trends in these field