2,376 research outputs found
Performance Modelling and Optimisation of Multi-hop Networks
A major challenge in the design of large-scale networks is to predict and optimise the
total time and energy consumption required to deliver a packet from a source node to a
destination node. Examples of such complex networks include wireless ad hoc and sensor
networks which need to deal with the effects of node mobility, routing inaccuracies, higher
packet loss rates, limited or time-varying effective bandwidth, energy constraints, and the
computational limitations of the nodes. They also include more reliable communication
environments, such as wired networks, that are susceptible to random failures, security
threats and malicious behaviours which compromise their quality of service (QoS) guarantees.
In such networks, packets traverse a number of hops that cannot be determined
in advance and encounter non-homogeneous network conditions that have been largely
ignored in the literature. This thesis examines analytical properties of packet travel in
large networks and investigates the implications of some packet coding techniques on both
QoS and resource utilisation.
Specifically, we use a mixed jump and diffusion model to represent packet traversal
through large networks. The model accounts for network non-homogeneity regarding
routing and the loss rate that a packet experiences as it passes successive segments of a
source to destination route. A mixed analytical-numerical method is developed to compute
the average packet travel time and the energy it consumes. The model is able to capture
the effects of increased loss rate in areas remote from the source and destination, variable
rate of advancement towards destination over the route, as well as of defending against
malicious packets within a certain distance from the destination. We then consider sending
multiple coded packets that follow independent paths to the destination node so as to
mitigate the effects of losses and routing inaccuracies. We study a homogeneous medium
and obtain the time-dependent properties of the packet’s travel process, allowing us to
compare the merits and limitations of coding, both in terms of delivery times and energy
efficiency. Finally, we propose models that can assist in the analysis and optimisation
of the performance of inter-flow network coding (NC). We analyse two queueing models
for a router that carries out NC, in addition to its standard packet routing function. The
approach is extended to the study of multiple hops, which leads to an optimisation problem
that characterises the optimal time that packets should be held back in a router, waiting
for coding opportunities to arise, so that the total packet end-to-end delay is minimised
Distributed MAC Protocol Supporting Physical-Layer Network Coding
Physical-layer network coding (PNC) is a promising approach for wireless
networks. It allows nodes to transmit simultaneously. Due to the difficulties
of scheduling simultaneous transmissions, existing works on PNC are based on
simplified medium access control (MAC) protocols, which are not applicable to
general multi-hop wireless networks, to the best of our knowledge. In this
paper, we propose a distributed MAC protocol that supports PNC in multi-hop
wireless networks. The proposed MAC protocol is based on the carrier sense
multiple access (CSMA) strategy and can be regarded as an extension to the IEEE
802.11 MAC protocol. In the proposed protocol, each node collects information
on the queue status of its neighboring nodes. When a node finds that there is
an opportunity for some of its neighbors to perform PNC, it notifies its
corresponding neighboring nodes and initiates the process of packet exchange
using PNC, with the node itself as a relay. During the packet exchange process,
the relay also works as a coordinator which coordinates the transmission of
source nodes. Meanwhile, the proposed protocol is compatible with conventional
network coding and conventional transmission schemes. Simulation results show
that the proposed protocol is advantageous in various scenarios of wireless
applications.Comment: Final versio
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Intra- and Inter-Session Network Coding in Wireless Networks
In this paper, we are interested in improving the performance of constructive
network coding schemes in lossy wireless environments.We propose I2NC - a
cross-layer approach that combines inter-session and intra-session network
coding and has two strengths. First, the error-correcting capabilities of
intra-session network coding make our scheme resilient to loss. Second,
redundancy allows intermediate nodes to operate without knowledge of the
decoding buffers of their neighbors. Based only on the knowledge of the loss
rates on the direct and overhearing links, intermediate nodes can make
decisions for both intra-session (i.e., how much redundancy to add in each
flow) and inter-session (i.e., what percentage of flows to code together)
coding. Our approach is grounded on a network utility maximization (NUM)
formulation of the problem. We propose two practical schemes, I2NC-state and
I2NC-stateless, which mimic the structure of the NUM optimal solution. We also
address the interaction of our approach with the transport layer. We
demonstrate the benefits of our schemes through simulations
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