X-TCP: A Cross Layer Approach for TCP Uplink Flows in mmWave Networks

Millimeter wave frequencies will likely be part of the fifth generation of mobile networks and of the 3GPP New Radio (NR) standard. MmWave communication indeed provides a very large bandwidth, thus an increased cell throughput, but how to exploit these resources at the higher layers is still an open research question. A very relevant issue is the high variability of the channel, caused by the blockage from obstacles and the human body. This affects the design of congestion control mechanisms at the transport layer, and state-of-the-art TCP schemes such as TCP CUBIC present suboptimal performance. In this paper, we present a cross layer approach for uplink flows that adjusts the congestion window of TCP at the mobile equipment side using an estimation of the available data rate at the mmWave physical layer, based on the actual resource allocation and on the Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio. We show that this approach reduces the latency, avoiding to fill the buffers in the cellular stack, and has a quicker recovery time after RTO events than several other TCP congestion control algorithms.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, accepted for presentation at the 2017 16th Annual Mediterranean Ad Hoc Networking Workshop (MED-HOC-NET

Reliable Video Streaming over mmWave with Multi Connectivity and Network Coding

The next generation of multimedia applications will require the telecommunication networks to support a higher bitrate than today, in order to deliver virtual reality and ultra-high quality video content to the users. Most of the video content will be accessed from mobile devices, prompting the provision of very high data rates by next generation (5G) cellular networks. A possible enabler in this regard is communication at mmWave frequencies, given the vast amount of available spectrum that can be allocated to mobile users; however, the harsh propagation environment at such high frequencies makes it hard to provide a reliable service. This paper presents a reliable video streaming architecture for mmWave networks, based on multi connectivity and network coding, and evaluates its performance using a novel combination of the ns-3 mmWave module, real video traces and the network coding library Kodo. The results show that it is indeed possible to reliably stream video over cellular mmWave links, while the combination of multi connectivity and network coding can support high video quality with low latency.Comment: To be presented at the 2018 IEEE International Conference on Computing, Networking and Communications (ICNC), March 2018, Maui, Hawaii, USA (invited paper). 6 pages, 4 figure

Scheduling the Data Transmission Interval in IEEE 802.11ad

IEEE 802.11ad standard enables communications in the mm-wave and unlicensed 60 GHz band. Propagation at mm-wave frequencies accounts for increased path loss and sensitivity to blockage when compared to sub-6-GHz frequencies. In order to realize communications in this vast spectrum, the standard introduced a novel medium access control layer which enables contention-free and contention-based channel access

Scheduling the Data Transmission Interval in IEEE 802.11ad: A Reinforcement Learning Approach

The IEEE 802.11ad Wi-Fi standard enables communications in the unlicensed mm-wave band at 60 GHz. Propagation at such frequencies accounts for increased path loss and sensitivity to blockage when compared to the traditional sub-6-GHz Wi-Fi frequencies. To cope with these phenomena, directional transmissions through beamformed links are needed. Many new features have been introduced with IEEE 802.11ad in order to realize directional communications in this band. One of the most crucial changes compared to legacy Wi-Fi communication paradigms is the introduction of a hybrid Medium Access Control (MAC), which enables contention-free and contention-based channel access. The increased complexity associated with hybrid channel access at the MAC layer must be addressed through the development of a resource scheduling algorithm. This paper proposes two novel resource scheduling mechanisms for IEEE 802.11ad. The first approach serves as a baseline for the development of a more advanced strategy based on Reinforcement Learning (RL). Indeed, the second scheme exploits RL to successfully find the optimal duration of each contention-free access period. Our performance evaluation shows that the policy based on RL provides the same level of expected throughput and delay performance while preserving more transmission time to be devoted to other traffic in order to enhance the network efficiency

Contention-free Scheduling of Periodic Traffic Sources in WiGig: Simulation Framework and Performance Analysis

The latest IEEE 802.11 amendments provide support to directional communications in the Millimeter Wave spectrum, thus making it possible to wirelessly approach several emerging use cases, such as eXtended Reality (XR), telepresence, and remote control of industrial facilities. However, these applications require stringent Quality of Service (QoS), that only contention-free scheduling algorithms can guarantee. In this paper, we propose a framework for the joint admission control and scheduling of periodic traffic streams over mmWave Wireless Local Area Networks based on Network Simulator 3 (ns-3), a popular full-stack open-source network simulator. Moreover, we design a baseline algorithm to handle scheduling requests, and evaluate its performance with a full-stack perspective. The algorithm is tested in three scenarios, where we investigated different configurations and features to highlight the trade-offs between contention-based and contention-free access strategies

A Simulation Framework for Contention-Free Scheduling on WiGig

The latest IEEE 802.11 amendments provide support to directional communications in the Millimeter Wave spectrum and, thanks to the wide bandwidth available at such frequencies, makes it possible to wirelessly approach several emergent use cases, such as virtual and augmented reality, telepresence, and remote control of industrial facilities. However, these applications require stringent Quality of Service, that only contention-free scheduling algorithms can guarantee. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end framework for the joint admission control and scheduling of periodic traffic streams over mmWave Wireless Local Area Networks based on Network Simulator 3, a popular full-stack open-source network simulator. Moreover, we design a baseline algorithm to handle scheduling requests, and we evaluate its performance with a full-stack perspective. The algorithm is tested in three scenarios, where we investigated different configurations and features to highlight the differences and trade-offs between contention-based and contention-free access strategies