Modelling and performance analysis of mobile ad hoc networks

PhD ThesisMobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) are becoming very attractive and useful in many kinds of communication and networking applications. This is due to their efficiency, relatively low cost, and flexibility provided by their dynamic infrastructure. Performance evaluation of mobile ad hoc networks is needed to compare various architectures of the network for their performance, study the effect of varying certain network parameters and study the interaction between various parameters that characterise the network. It can help in the design and implementation of MANETs. It is to be noted that most of the research that studies the performance of MANETs were evaluated using discrete event simulation (DES) utilising a broad band of network simulators. The principle drawback of DES models is the time and resources needed to run such models for large realistic systems, especially when results with a high accuracy are desired. In addition, studying typical problems such as the deadlock and concurrency in MANETs using DES is hard because network simulators implement the network at a low abstraction level and cannot support specifications at higher levels. Due to the advantage of quick construction and numerical analysis, analytical modelling techniques, such as stochastic Petri nets and process algebra, have been used for performance analysis of communication systems. In addition, analytical modelling is a less costly and more efficient method. It generally provides the best insight into the effects of various parameters and their interactions. Hence, analytical modelling is the method of choice for a fast and cost effective evaluation of mobile ad hoc networks. To the best of our knowledge, there is no analytical study that analyses the performance of multi-hop ad hoc networks, where mobile nodes move according to a random mobility model, in terms of the end-to-end delay and throughput. This work ii presents a novel analytical framework developed using stochastic reward nets and mathematical modelling techniques for modelling and analysis of multi-hop ad hoc networks, based on the IEEE 802.11 DCF MAC protocol, where mobile nodes move according to the random waypoint mobility model. The proposed framework is used to analysis the performance of multi-hop ad hoc networks as a function of network parameters such as the transmission range, carrier sensing range, interference range, number of nodes, network area size, packet size, and packet generation rate. The proposed framework is organized into several models to break up the complexity of modelling the complete network and make it easier to analyse each model as required. This is based on the idea of decomposition and fixed point iteration of stochastic reward nets. The proposed framework consists of a mathematical model and four stochastic reward nets models; the path analysis model, data link layer model, network layer model and transport layer model. These models are arranged in a way similar to the layers of the OSI protocol stack model. The mathematical model is used to compute the expected number of hops between any source-destination pair; and the average number of carrier sensing, hidden, and interfering nodes. The path analysis model analyses the dynamic of paths in the network due to the node mobility in terms of the path connection availability and rate of failure and repair. The data link layer model describes the behaviour of the IEEE 802.11 DCF MAC protocol. The actions in the network layer are modelled by the network layer model. The transport layer model represents the behaviour of the transport layer protocols. The proposed models are validated using extensive simulations

Medium Access Control Protocols for Ad-Hoc Wireless Networks: A Survey

Studies of ad hoc wireless networks are a relatively new field gaining more popularity for various new applications. In these networks, the Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols are responsible for coordinating the access from active nodes. These protocols are of significant importance since the wireless communication channel is inherently prone to errors and unique problems such as the hidden-terminal problem, the exposed-terminal problem, and signal fading effects. Although a lot of research has been conducted on MAC protocols, the various issues involved have mostly been presented in isolation of each other. We therefore make an attempt to present a comprehensive survey of major schemes, integrating various related issues and challenges with a view to providing a big-picture outlook to this vast area. We present a classification of MAC protocols and their brief description, based on their operating principles and underlying features. In conclusion, we present a brief summary of key ideas and a general direction for future work

MAC Centered Cooperation - Synergistic Design of Network Coding, Multi-Packet Reception, and Improved Fairness to Increase Network Throughput

We design a cross-layer approach to aid in develop- ing a cooperative solution using multi-packet reception (MPR), network coding (NC), and medium access (MAC). We construct a model for the behavior of the IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol and apply it to key small canonical topology components and their larger counterparts. The results obtained from this model match the available experimental results with fidelity. Using this model, we show that fairness allocation by the IEEE 802.11 MAC can significantly impede performance; hence, we devise a new MAC that not only substantially improves throughput, but provides fairness to flows of information rather than to nodes. We show that cooperation between NC, MPR, and our new MAC achieves super-additive gains of up to 6.3 times that of routing with the standard IEEE 802.11 MAC. Furthermore, we extend the model to analyze our MAC's asymptotic and throughput behaviors as the number of nodes increases or the MPR capability is limited to only a single node. Finally, we show that although network performance is reduced under substantial asymmetry or limited implementation of MPR to a central node, there are some important practical cases, even under these conditions, where MPR, NC, and their combination provide significant gains

On the Catalyzing Effect of Randomness on the Per-Flow Throughput in Wireless Networks

This paper investigates the throughput capacity of a flow crossing a multi-hop wireless network, whose geometry is characterized by general randomness laws including Uniform, Poisson, Heavy-Tailed distributions for both the nodes' densities and the number of hops. The key contribution is to demonstrate \textit{how} the \textit{per-flow throughput} depends on the distribution of 1) the number of nodes $N_j$ inside hops' interference sets, 2) the number of hops $K$, and 3) the degree of spatial correlations. The randomness in both $N_j$'s and $K$ is advantageous, i.e., it can yield larger scalings (as large as $\Theta(n)$) than in non-random settings. An interesting consequence is that the per-flow capacity can exhibit the opposite behavior to the network capacity, which was shown to suffer from a logarithmic decrease in the presence of randomness. In turn, spatial correlations along the end-to-end path are detrimental by a logarithmic term

An Energy Efficient MAC Protocol for QoS Provisioning in Cognitive Radio Ad Hoc Networks

The explosive growth in the use of real-time applications on mobile devices has resulted in new challenges to the design of medium access control (MAC) protocols for ad hoc networks. In this paper, we propose an energy efficient cognitive radio (CR) MAC protocol for QoS provisioning called ECRQ-MAC, which integrate the spectrum sensing at physical (PHY) layer and the channel-timeslots allocation at MAC layer. We consider the problem of providing QoS guarantee to CR users as well as to maintain the most efficient use of scarce bandwidth resources. The ECRQ-MAC protocol exploits the advantage of both multiple channels and TDMA, and achieves aggressive power savings by allowing CR users that are not involved in communication to go into sleep mode. The proposed ECRQ-MAC protocol allows CR users to identify and use the unused frequency spectrum of licensed band in a way that constrains the level of interference to the primary users (PUs). Our scheme improves network throughput significantly, especially when the network is highly congested. The simulation results show that our proposed protocol successfully exploits multiple channels and significantly improves network performance by using the licensed spectrum opportunistically and protects QoS provisioning over cognitive radio ad hoc networks

Cooperative communication in wireless local area networks

The concept of cooperative communication has been proposed to improve link capacity, transmission reliability and network coverage in multiuser wireless communication networks. Different from conventional point-to-point and point-to-multipoint communications, cooperative communication allows multiple users or stations in a wireless network to coordinate their packet transmissions and share each other’s resources, thus achieving high performance gain and better service coverage. According to the IEEE 802.11 standards, Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) can support multiple transmission data rates, depending on the instantaneous channel condition between a source station and an Access Point (AP). In such a multi-rate WLAN, those low data-rate stations will occupy the shared communication channel for a longer period for transmitting a fixed-size packet to the AP, thus reducing the channel efficiency and overall system performance. This thesis addresses this challenging problem in multi-rate WLANs by proposing two cooperative Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols, namely Busy Tone based Cooperative MAC (BTAC) protocol and Cooperative Access with Relay’s Data (CARD) protocol. Under BTAC, a low data-rate sending station tries to identify and use a close-by intermediate station as its relay to forward its data packets at higher data-rate to the AP through a two-hop path. In this way, BTAC can achieve cooperative diversity gain in multi-rate WLANs. Furthermore, the proposed CARD protocol enables a relay station to transmit its own data packets to the AP immediately after forwarding its neighbour’s packets, thus minimising the handshake procedure and overheads for sensing and reserving the common channel. In doing so, CARD can achieve both cooperative diversity gain and cooperative multiplexing gain. Both BTAC and CARD protocols are backward compatible with the existing IEEE 802.11 standards. New cross-layer mathematical models have been developed in this thesis to study the performance of BTAC and CARD under different channel conditions and for saturated and unsaturated traffic loads. Detailed simulation platforms were developed and are discussed in this thesis. Extensive simulation results validate the mathematical models developed and show that BTAC and CARD protocols can significantly improve system throughput, service delay, and energy efficiency for WLANs operating under realistic communication scenarios

RCFD: A Novel Channel Access Scheme for Full-Duplex Wireless Networks Based on Contention in Time and Frequency Domains

In the last years, the advancements in signal processing and integrated circuits technology allowed several research groups to develop working prototypes of in-band full-duplex wireless systems. The introduction of such a revolutionary concept is promising in terms of increasing network performance, but at the same time poses several new challenges, especially at the MAC layer. Consequently, innovative channel access strategies are needed to exploit the opportunities provided by full-duplex while dealing with the increased complexity derived from its adoption. In this direction, this paper proposes RTS/CTS in the Frequency Domain (RCFD), a MAC layer scheme for full-duplex ad hoc wireless networks, based on the idea of time-frequency channel contention. According to this approach, different OFDM subcarriers are used to coordinate how nodes access the shared medium. The proposed scheme leads to efficient transmission scheduling with the result of avoiding collisions and exploiting full-duplex opportunities. The considerable performance improvements with respect to standard and state-of-the-art MAC protocols for wireless networks are highlighted through both theoretical analysis and network simulations.Comment: Submitted at IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1605.0971