CA-AQM: Channel-Aware Active Queue Management for Wireless Networks

In a wireless network, data transmission suffers from varied signal strengths and channel bit error rates. To ensure successful packet reception under different channel conditions, automatic bit rate control schemes are implemented to adjust the transmission bit rates based on the perceived channel conditions. This leads to a wireless network with diverse bit rates. On the other hand, TCP is unaware of such {\em rate diversity} when it performs flow rate control in wireless networks. Experiments show that the throughput of flows in a wireless network are driven by the one with the lowest bit rate, (i.e., the one with the worst channel condition). This does not only lead to low channel utilization, but also fluctuated performance for all flows independent of their individual channel conditions. To address this problem, we conduct an optimization-based analytical study of such behavior of TCP. Based on this optimization framework, we present a joint flow control and active queue management solution. The presented channel-aware active queue management (CA-AQM) provides congestion signals for flow control not only based on the queue length but also the channel condition and the transmission bit rate. Theoretical analysis shows that our solution isolates the performance of individual flows with diverse bit rates. Further, it stabilizes the queue lengths and provides a time-fair channel allocation. Test-bed experiments validate our theoretical claims over a multi-rate wireless network testbed

Insights into the Design of Congestion Control Protocols for Multi-Hop Wireless Mesh Networks

The widespread deployment of multi-hop wireless mesh networks will depend on the performance seen by the user. Unfortunately, the most predominant transport protocol, TCP, performs poorly over such networks, even leading to starvation in some topologies. In this work, we characterize the root causes of starvation in 802.11 scheduled multi-hop wireless networks via simulations. We analyze the performance of three categories of transport protocols. (1) end-to-end protocols that require implicit feedback (TCP SACK), (2) Explicit feedback based protocols (XCP and VCP) and (3) Open-loop protocol (UDP). We ask and answer the following questions in relation to these protocols: (a) Why does starvation occur in different topologies? Is it intrinsic to TCP or, in general, to feedback-based protocols? or does it also occur in the case of open-loop transfers such as CBR over UDP? (a) What is the role of application behavior on transport layer performance in multi-hop wireless mesh networks? (b) Is sharing congestion in the wireless neighborhood essential for avoiding starvation? (c) For explicit feedback based transport protocols, such as XCP and VCP, what performance can be expected when their capacity estimate is inaccurate? Based on the insights derived from the above analysis, we design a rate-based protocol called VRate that uses the two ECN bits for conveying load feedback information. VRate achieves near optimal rates when configured with the correct capacity estimate

TCP-Aware Backpressure Routing and Scheduling

In this work, we explore the performance of backpressure routing and scheduling for TCP flows over wireless networks. TCP and backpressure are not compatible due to a mismatch between the congestion control mechanism of TCP and the queue size based routing and scheduling of the backpressure framework. We propose a TCP-aware backpressure routing and scheduling that takes into account the behavior of TCP flows. TCP-aware backpressure (i) provides throughput optimality guarantees in the Lyapunov optimization framework, (ii) gracefully combines TCP and backpressure without making any changes to the TCP protocol, (iii) improves the throughput of TCP flows significantly, and (iv) provides fairness across competing TCP flows

Max-min Fairness in 802.11 Mesh Networks

In this paper we build upon the recent observation that the 802.11 rate region is log-convex and, for the first time, characterise max-min fair rate allocations for a large class of 802.11 wireless mesh networks. By exploiting features of the 802.11e/n MAC, in particular TXOP packet bursting, we are able to use this characterisation to establish a straightforward, practically implementable approach for achieving max-min throughput fairness. We demonstrate that this approach can be readily extended to encompass time-based fairness in multi-rate 802.11 mesh networks

A testbed for MANETs: Implementation, experiences and learned lessons

In this paper, we present the implementation, experiences and lessons learned of our tesbed for Ad-hoc networks and Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs). We used OLSR protocol for real experimental evaluation. We investigate the effect of mobility and topology changing in the throughput of a MANET. We study the impact of best-effort traffic for Mesh Topology and Linear Topology. In this work, we consider eight experimental models and we assess the performance of our testbed in terms of throughput, round trip time and packet loss. We found that some of the OLSR's problems can be solved, for instance the routing loop, but this protocol still has the self-interference problem. Also, there is an intricate interdependence between MAC layer and routing layer. We carried out the experiments considering stationary nodes of an Ad-hoc network and the node mobility of MANETs. We found that throughput of TCP was improved by reducing Link Quality Window Size (LQWS). For TCP data flow, we got better results when the LQWS value was 10. Moreover, we found that the node join and leave operations increase the packet loss. The OLSR protocol has a good performance when the source node is moving. However, the performance is not good when the relay nodes are moving.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

CapEst: A Measurement-based Approach to Estimating Link Capacity in Wireless Networks

Estimating link capacity in a wireless network is a complex task because the available capacity at a link is a function of not only the current arrival rate at that link, but also of the arrival rate at links which interfere with that link as well as of the nature of interference between these links. Models which accurately characterize this dependence are either too computationally complex to be useful or lack accuracy. Further, they have a high implementation overhead and make restrictive assumptions, which makes them inapplicable to real networks. In this paper, we propose CapEst, a general, simple yet accurate, measurement-based approach to estimating link capacity in a wireless network. To be computationally light, CapEst allows inaccuracy in estimation; however, using measurements, it can correct this inaccuracy in an iterative fashion and converge to the correct estimate. Our evaluation shows that CapEst always converged to within 5% of the correct value in less than 18 iterations. CapEst is model-independent, hence, is applicable to any MAC/PHY layer and works with auto-rate adaptation. Moreover, it has a low implementation overhead, can be used with any application which requires an estimate of residual capacity on a wireless link and can be implemented completely at the network layer without any support from the underlying chipset