Optimisation of relay placement in wireless butterfly networks

As a typical model of multicast network, wireless butterfly networks (WBNs) have been studied for modelling the scenario when two source nodes wish to convey data to two destination nodes via an intermediary node namely relay node. In the context of wireless communications, when receiving two data packets from the two source nodes, the relay node can employ either physical-layer network coding or analogue network coding on the combined packet prior to forwarding to the two destination nodes. Evaluating the energy efficiency of these combination approaches, energy-delay trade-off (EDT) is worth to be investigated and the relay placement should be taken into account in the practical network design. This chapter will first investigate the EDT of network coding in the WBNs. Based on the derived EDT, algorithms that optimize the relay position will be developed to either minimize the transmission delay or minimize the energy consumption subject to constraints on power allocation and location of nodes. Furthermore, considering an extended model of the WBN, the relay placement will be studied for a general wireless multicast network with multiple source, relay and destination nodes

An efficient network coded ARQ for multisource multidestination relay networks over mixed flat fading channels

This paper proposes a new reliable automatic repeat request (ARQ) transmission protocol for wireless multisource multidestination relay networks over mixed fading channels. Conventional application of ARQ protocols to retransmit lost or erroneous packets in relay networks can cause considerable delay latency with a significant increase in the number of retransmissions when networks consist of multiple sources and multiple destinations. To address this issue, a new ARQ protocol based on network coding (NC) is proposed where the relay detects packets from different transmission sources, then uses NC to combine and forward lost packets to their destinations. An efficient means for the retransmission of all lost packets is proposed through two packet-combination algorithms for retransmissions at the relay and sources. The paper derives mathematical formulation of transmission bandwidth for this new NCbased ARQ protocol and compares analytical and simulation results with some other ARQ protocols over both mixed Rayleigh and Rician flat fading channel. The mixed fading model permits investigation of two typical fading scenarios where the relay is located in the neighbourhood of either the sources or the destinations. The transmission bandwidth results show that the proposed NC-based ARQ protocol demonstrates superior performance over other existing ARQ schemes

High reliability downlink MU-MIMO with new encoded OSTBC approach and superposition modulated side information

Abstract. The promise of Fifth Generation Mobile Network (5G) heralded 5G-era with apparently unlimited potential outcomes. It resulted in the emergence of new paradigms of thought, better approaches to lead business, new innovative solutions, services and products, and is expected to transform the world as we know it. With the advent of some of those new technologies and use cases which deviate from the traditional human-centric, delay tolerant applications, the need for Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications (URLLC) in the 5G wireless network has become indispensable. In this thesis we investigate how to improve the reliability of a downlink multiuser (MU) MIMO transmission scheme with the use of a new approach of orthogonal space time block codes (OSTBC) and network coding with superposition modulated system and side information. The main advantage here is that we show multiple users can be accommodated with the same resource. This is quite useful in a wireless system where resources are always restricted. This therefore is a combination of two techniques to further enhance reliability. Orthogonality is useful in terms of resolving different signals from multiple antennas in a reduced complexity configuration. Superposition modulation with side information is important as it facilitates the recovery of symbols while still keeping the energy normalized. Thus we carried out a detailed analysis with the new OSTBC approach. It is shown that the performance of a multiuser (MU) MIMO system can be improved significantly in terms of bit, block and frame error rates (BER, BLER and FER) as reliability measures. By accommodating a reasonable number of multiple users, high reliability is achieved at the expense of bringing down the rate. To compensate for the low rate, conventional OSTBC is considered as well, where, as a penalty to pay, multiple orthogonal resources are required

On the energy-delay tradeoff and relay positioning of wireless butterfly networks

This paper considers energy-delay tradeoff (EDT) of data transmission in wireless network coded butterfly networks (WNCBNs) where two sources convey their data to two destinations with the assistance of a relay employing either physical-layer network coding (PNC) or analog network coding (ANC). Hybrid automatic repeat request with incremental redundancy (HARQIR) is applied for a reliable communication. Particularly, we first investigate the EDT of both PNC and ANC schemes in WNCBNs to evaluate their energy efficiency. It is found that there is no advantage of using a relay in a high power regime. However, in a low power regime, the PNC scheme is shown to be more energy efficient than both the ANC and direct transmission (DT) schemes if the relay is located far from the sources, while both the PNC and ANC schemes are less energy efficient than the DT scheme when the relay is located near the sources. Additionally, algorithms that optimise relay positioning are developed based on two criteria - minimising total transmission delays and minimising total energy consumption subject to node location and power allocation constraints. This optimisation can be considered as a benchmark for relay positioning in either a low-latency or a low-energy-consumption WNCBN

Towards scalable, energy-efficient, bus-based on-chip networks

Journal ArticleIt is expected that future on-chip networks for many-core processors will impose huge overheads in terms of energy, delay, complexity, verification effort, and area. There is a common belief that the bandwidth necessary for future applications can only be provided by employing packet-switched networks with complex routers and a scalable directory-based coherence protocol. We posit that such a scheme might likely be overkill in a well designed system in addition to being expensive in terms of power because of a large number of power-hungry routers. We show that bus-based networks with snooping protocols can significantly lower energy consumption and simplify network/ protocol design and verification, with no loss in performance. We achieve these characteristics by dividing the chip into multiple segments, each having its own broadcast bus, with these buses further connected by a central bus. This helps eliminate expensive routers, but suffers from the energy overhead of long wires. We propose the use of multiple Bloom filters to effectively track data presence in the cache and restrict bus broadcasts to a subset of segments, significantly reducing energy consumption. We further show that the use of OS page coloring helps maximize locality and improves the effectiveness of the Bloom filters. We also employ low-swing wiring to further reduce the energy overheads of the links. Performance can also be improved at relatively low costs by utilizing more of the abundant metal budgets on-chip and employing multiple address-interleaved buses rather than multiple routers. Thus, with the combination of all the above innovations, we extend the scalability of buses and believe that buses can be a viable and attractive option for future on-chip networks. We show energy reductions of up to 31X on average compared to many state-of-the-art packet switched networks

On the energy-delay tradeoff and relay positioning of wireless butterfly networks

This paper considers energy-delay tradeoff (EDT) of data transmission in wireless network coded butterfly networks (WNCBNs) where two sources convey their data to two destinations with the assistance of a relay employing either physical-layer network coding (PNC) or analog network coding (ANC). Hybrid automatic repeat request with incremental redundancy (HARQIR) is applied for a reliable communication. Particularly, we first investigate the EDT of both PNC and ANC schemes in WNCBNs to evaluate their energy efficiency. It is found that there is no advantage of using a relay in a high power regime. However, in a low power regime, the PNC scheme is shown to be more energy efficient than both the ANC and direct transmission (DT) schemes if the relay is located far from the sources, while both the PNC and ANC schemes are less energy efficient than the DT scheme when the relay is located near the sources. Additionally, algorithms that optimise relay positioning are developed based on two criteria - minimising total transmission delays and minimising total energy consumption subject to node location and power allocation constraints. This optimisation can be considered as a benchmark for relay positioning in either a low-latency or a low-energy-consumption WNCBN

Network coding for computer networking

Conventional communication networks route data packets in a store-and-forward mode. A router buffers received packets and forwards them intact towards their intended destination. Network Coding (NC), however, generalises this method by allowing the router to perform algebraic operations on the packets before forwarding them. The purpose of NC is to improve the network performance to achieve its maximum capacity also known as max-flow min-cut bound. NC has become very well established in the field of information theory, however, practical implementations in real-world networks is yet to be explored. In this thesis, new implementations of NC are brought forward. The effect of NC on flow error control protocols and queuing over computer networks is investigated by establishing and designing a mathematical and simulation framework. One goal of such investigation is to understand how NC technique can reduce the number of packets required to acknowledge the reception of those sent over the network while error-control schemes are employed. Another goal is to control the network queuing stability by reducing the number of packets required to convey a set of information. A custom-built simulator based on SimEvents® has been developed in order to model several scenarios within this approach. The work in this thesis is divided into two key parts. The objective of the first part is to study the performance of communication networks employing error control protocols when NC is adopted. In particular, two main Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) schemes are invoked, namely the Stop-and-Wait (SW) and Selective Repeat (SR) ARQ. Results show that in unicast point-to point communication, the proposed NC scheme offers an increase in the throughput over traditional SW ARQ between 2.5% and 50.5% at each link, with negligible decoding delay. Additionally, in a Butterfly network, SR ARQ employing NC achieves a throughput gain between 22% and 44% over traditional SR ARQ when the number of incoming links to the intermediate node varies between 2 and 5. Moreover, in an extended Butterfly network, NC offered a throughput increase of up to 48% under an error-free scenario and 50% in the presence of errors. Despite the extensive research on synchronous NC performance in various fields, little has been said about its queuing behaviour. One assumption is that packets are served following a Poisson distribution. The packets from different streams are coded prior to being served and then exit through only one stream. This study determines the arrival distribution that coded packets follow at the serving node. In general this leads to study general queuing systems of type G/M/1. Hence, the objective of the second part of this study is twofold. The study aims to determine the distribution of the coded packets and estimate the waiting time faced by coded packets before their complete serving process. Results show that NC brings a new solution for queuing stability as evidenced by the small waiting time the coded packets spend in the intermediate node queue before serving. This work is further enhanced by studying the server utilization in traditional routing and NC scenarios. NC-based M/M/1 with finite capacity K is also analysed to investigate packet loss probability for both scenarios. Based on the results achieved, the utilization of NC in error-prone and long propagation delay networks is recommended. Additionally, since the work provides an insightful prediction of particular networks queuing behaviour, employing synchronous NC can bring a solution for systems’ stability with packet-controlled sources and limited input buffers