Floor acquisition multiple access (FAMA) in single‐channel wireless networks

The FAMANCS protocol is introduced for wireless LANs and adhoc networks that are based on a single channel and asynchronous transmissions (i.e., no time slotting). FAMANCS (for floor acquisition multiple access with nonpersistent carrier sensing) guarantees that a single sender is able to send data packets free of collisions to a given receiver at any given time. FAMANCS is based on a threeway handshake between sender and receiver in which the sender uses nonpersistent carrier sensing to transmit a requesttosend (RTS) and the receiver sends a cleartosend (CTS) that lasts much longer than the RTS to serve as a busy tone that forces all hidden nodes to back off long enough to allow a collisionfree data packet to arrive at the receiver. It is shown that carrier sensing is needed to support collisionfree transmissions in the presence of hidden terminals when nodes transmit RTSs asynchronously. The throughput of FAMANCS is analyzed for singlechannel networks with and without hidden terminals; the analysis shows that FAMANCS performs better than ALOHA, CSMA, and all prior proposals based on collision avoidance dialogues (e.g., MACA, MACAW, and IEEE 802.11 DFWMAC) in the presence of hidden terminals. Simulation experiments are used to confirm the analytical results.     

A Markov modulated fluid queueing system with strict priority

We investigate a Markov modulated fluid queueing system with strict priority. The input process is composed of two fluid flows which are stored in buffer1 and buffer2, respectively. The rates of these fluid flows depend on the current state of a finite state Markov chain. Buffer1 has full assignment of priority (=strict priority) for service and so buffer2 is served at a residual service rate when buffer1 is empty. We explicitly derive the stationary joint distribution of the two buffer contents in the system by a spectral decomposition method. In the case of a twostate Markov chain, the joint distribution is explicitly expressed in terms of the system parameters. Also the joint moments and tail distributions of the two buffer contents are obtained and some numerical examples are presented.     

Building video‐on‐demand servers

We have designed and implemented a controllable software architecture for a VideoonDemand (VOD) server. With the proposed software architecture, many system design issues can be investigated. For example, we studied several disk striping schemes in the storage subsystem and examined the impact of the disk striping schemes on the utilization of system resources. In the processing component, we observed that additional concurrent video streams can be supported by using efficient memory interleaving. Buffering with a large memory space in the processing subsystem is a common technique to alleviate the latency variance of accessing different system components. By employing userlevel control and scheduling, the variance can be decreased thereby reducing the resulting buffer space needed for each video stream. In the network subsystem, we adopted a serverdriven approach for investigating MPEG2 video delivery over Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks. The VOD server controls the pace of video transmission and reduces the complexity of the client. Since the client has limited buffer space (due to cost considerations), we have reduced the buffer requirement by regulating the transmission based on timing information embedded in the MPEG2 streams. Our research and experimental results are based on a VOD server which is currently under construction. The prototype server is based on an SGI sharedmemory multiprocessor with a mass storage system consisting of RAID3 disk arrays. Using 30 RAID3 disk arrays, preliminary experimental results show that the prototype server can potentially support more than 360 highquality video streams with careful design and coordination of the different system components.     

Scheduling and bandwidth allocation for the distribution of archived video in VOD systems

Providing costeffective videoondemand (VOD) services necessitates reducing the required bandwidth for transporting video over highspeed networks. In this paper, we investigate efficient schemes for transporting archived MPEGcoded video over a VOD distribution network. A video stream is characterized by a timevarying traffic envelope, which provides an upper bound on the bit rate. Using such envelopes, we show that video streams can be scheduled for transmission over the network such that the perstream allocated bandwidth is significantly less than the source peak rate. In a previous work [13], we investigated stream scheduling and bandwidth allocation using global traffic envelopes and homogeneous streams. In this paper, we generalize the scheduling scheme in [13] to include the heterogeneous case. We then investigate the allocation problem under windowbased traffic envelopes, which provide tight bounds on the bit rate. Using such envelopes, we introduce three streamscheduling schemes for multiplexing video connections at a server. The performance of these schemes is evaluated under static and dynamic scenarios. Our results indicate a significant reduction in the perstream allocated bandwidth when stream scheduling is used. While this reduction is obtained through statistical multiplexing, the transported streams are guaranteed stringent, deterministic quality of service (i.e., zero loss rate and small, bounded delay). In contrast to video smoothing, our approach requires virtually no buffer at the settop box since frames are delivered at their playback rate.     

Personal Imaging and lookpainting as tools for personal documentary and investigative photojournalism

A means and apparatus for covert capture of extremely highresolution photorealistic images is presented. The apparatus embodies a new form of userinterface – instead of the traditional point and click metaphor which was thought to be the simplest photography had to offer, what is proposed is a look metaphor in which images are generated through the natural process of looking around, in a manner that does not require conscious thought or effort. These lookpaintings become photographic/videographic memories that may, at times, exceed the quality attainable with even large and cumbersome professional photographic film cameras, yet they may be captured through a device that resembles ordinary sunglasses. The method is based on longterm psychophysical adaptation using a covert sunglassbased realitymediating apparatus, together with two new results in image processing. The first new result is a means of estimating the true projective coordinate transformation between successive pairs of images, and the second is that of estimating, to within a single unknown scalar constant, the quantity of light arriving at the image plane. Furthermore, what is captured is more than just a picture. The resulting environment map may be explored by one or more remote participants who may also correspond and interact with the wearer during the actual shooting process, giving rise to computer supported collaborative (collective) photography, videography, shared photographic/videographic memory, etc.     

Consistency management in Deno

We describe a new replicatedobject protocol designed for use in mobile and weaklyconnected environments. The protocol differs from previous protocols in combining epidemic information propagation with voting, and in using fixed perobject currencies for voting. The advantage of epidemic protocols is that data movement only requires pairwise communication. Hence, there is no need for a majority quorum to be available and simultaneously connected at any single time. The protocols increase availability by using voting, rather than primarycopy or primarycommit schemes. Finally, the use of perobject currencies allows voting to take place in an entirely decentralized fashion, without any server having complete knowledge of group membership. We show that currency allocation can be used to implement diverse policies. For example, uniform currency distributions emulate traditional voting schemes, while allocating all currency to a single server emulates a primarycopy scheme. We present simulation results showing both schemes, as well as the performance advantages of using currency proxies to temporarily reallocate currency during planned disconnections. Furthermore, we discuss an initial design of the underlying replicatedobject system and present a basic API.     

Time‐varying modeling of a nonstationary signal

In this paper, a method for modeling a nonstationary signal using timevarying parameters by considering that the signal is generated by a linear, timevarying (LTV) system with a stationary white noise input is presented. This method is based on the Wold–Cramer (WC) representation of a nonstationary signal. Because the relationship between the generalized transfer function of an LTV system and the timevarying coefficients of the difference equation of a discretetime system is not addressed so far in the literature, therefore, in this paper a solution to this problem is proposed. A simple relationship between the system generalized transfer function and the timevarying parameters of the system is derived, then an MLS algorithm is developed to solve for the system timevarying parameters. Computer simulation illustrating the effectiveness of our algorithm is presented.     

MA‐WATM: A new approach towards an adaptive wireless ATM network

In a cellular multimedia network like wireless ATM (WATM), self control seems primordial. Our new approach is based on the application of DAI (distributed artificial intelligence) techniques in order to build a selfadaptive network within random nonuniform traffic conditions. Attempting to achieve a high network capacity in terms of resource allocation and air interface BER (bit error rate), we propose to apply intelligent agent features to enhance the architecture of WATM systems. In fact, the intelligent platform MAWATM (multiagent wireless ATM) is used to provide a flexible integration of the multiagent technique in wireless entities, BSs (base stations), MSs (mobile stations) and MSCs (mobile switching centers). Two applications are investigated and explored by simulations in order to bear out the feasibility of the multiagent approach.     

The effects of controlling capture on multimedia traffic for shared Ethernet systems

The IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard is evolving to support much higher data rates and improved quality of service. Even low cost halfduplex CSMA/CD networks can be improved using an enhanced backwardscompatible collision arbitration algorithm known as the Binary Logarithmic Arbitration Method (BLAM) now being proposed as the IEEE 802.3w draft standard. BLAM is designed to coexist fairly with the existing Binary Exponential Backoff (BEB) algorithm, while eliminating its shortterm unfairness problems. In this paper, we focus on how BLAM improves Ethernet performance for multimedia data transport. Analytical, simulation, and prototype hardware experimental results using synthetic, trace, and actual measured traffic are presented. It is shown that BLAM Ethernets can support significantly greater numbers of video streams than existing BEB Ethernets and if the delivery requirements for the video traffic are not too strict, that BLAM Ethernets can even support video if the network is completely saturated with data traffic.     

Performance and implementation of clustered‐OFDM for wireless communications

An elegant means by which highspeed burst wireless transmission can be accomplished with small amounts of overhead is through a novel technique referred to as clusteredOFDM (Cimini et al., 1996). By using OFDM modulation with a long symbol interval, clusteredOFDM overcomes the complex and costly equalization requirements associated with single carrier systems. Moreover, the need for highly linear power amplifiers typically required in OFDM systems is alleviated through the use of multiple transmit antennas combined with nonlinear coding. The clustering technique also leads to a natural implementation of transmit diversity. This paper reports on preliminary results on the performance of a clusteredOFDM system as well as the design and implementation of a clusteredOFDM transmitter. The prototype transmitter can deliver 7.5 Mbps, and it is expected that this data rate could be easily tripled with existing technology in a second generation system. The paper also describes the architectural tradeoffs made in order to reduce the hardware complexity of the boards as well as some experimental results showing the operation of the transmitter.     

Intelligent information dissemination services in hybrid satellite‐wireless networks

The need for rapid deployment and user mobility suggest the use of a hybrid satellitewireless network infrastructure for important situation awareness and emergency response applications. An Intelligent Information Dissemination Service (IIDS) has been developed to support the dissemination and maintenance of extended situation awareness throughout such a network information infrastructure in a seamless manner. One of the goals of IIDS is to transparently handle the mismatches in characteristics of satellite and terrestrial wireless networks, allow effective utilization of available bandwidth, and support timely delivery of highly relevant information. IIDS achieves the above by implementing user profile aggregation that incrementally aggregates users into communities sharing common interests to enable multicastbased information dissemination. Based on the user grouping, semantic profile matching customizes information streams based on matching user group interest profiles. By taking into account expected changes in user profiles, profileoriented data dissemination achieves predictive push and caching that anticipates future user needs and minimizes latency of data request by making data available before they are explicitly requested. Finally, bandwidthaware filtering adapts information streams to resource bandwidth availability to gracefully hide the bandwidth mismatch between the satellite and wireless links in the hybrid network infrastructure. The IIDS software has been deployed on the Digital Wireless Battlefield Network (DWBN) that integrates commercial offtheshelf satellite and wireless products into a heterogeneous satellite/wireless hybrid network for supporting wireless mobile multimedia services.     

Simulation‐based performance evaluation of routing protocols for mobile ad hoc networks

In this paper we evaluate several routing protocols for mobile, wireless, ad hoc networks via packetlevel simulations. The ad hoc networks are multihop wireless networks with dynamically changing network connectivity owing to mobility. The protocol suite includes several routing protocols specifically designed for ad hoc routing, as well as more traditional protocols, such as link state and distance vector, used for dynamic networks. Performance is evaluated with respect to fraction of packets delivered, endtoend delay, and routing load for a given traffic and mobility model. Both small (30 nodes) and medium sized (60 nodes) networks are used. It is observed that the new generation of ondemand routing protocols use much lower routing load, especially with small number of peertopeer conversations. However, the traditional link state and distance vector protocols provide, in general, better packet delivery and endtoend delay performance.     

A scalable wireless virtual LAN

This paper presents a Wireless Virtual Local Area Network (WVLAN) to support mobility in IPoverATM local area networks. Mobility is handled by a joint ATMlayer handoff for connection rerouting and MAClayer handoff for location tracking, such that the effects of mobility are localized and transparent to the higherlayer protocols. Different functions, such as Address Resolution Protocol (ARP), mobile location, and ATM connection admission are combined to reduce protocol overhead and frontend delay for connectionless packet transmission in connectionoriented ATM networks. The proposed WVLAN, through the use of ATM technology, provides a scalable wireless virtual LAN solution for IP mobile hosts.     

Tree multicast strategies in mobile,multihop wireless networks

Tree multicast is a well established concept in wired networks. Two versions, persource tree multicast (e.g., DVMRP) and shared tree multicast (e.g., Core Based Tree), account for the majority of the wireline implementations. In this paper, we extend the tree multicast concept to wireless, mobile, multihop networks for applications ranging from ad hoc networking to disaster recovery and battlefield. The main challenge in wireless, mobile networks is the rapidly changing environment. We address this issue in our design by: (a) using soft state (b) assigning different roles to nodes depending on their mobility (2level mobility model); (c) proposing an adaptive scheme which combines shared tree and persource tree benefits, and (d) dynamically relocating the shared tree Rendezvous Point (RP). A detailed wireless simulation model is used to evaluate various multicast schemes. The results show that persource trees perform better in heavy loads because of the more efficient traffic distribution; while shared trees are more robust to mobility and are more scalable to large network sizes. The adaptive tree multicast scheme, a hybrid between shared tree and persource tree, combines the advantages of both and performs consistently well across all load and mobility scenarios. The main contributions of this study are: the use of a 2level mobility model to improve the stability of the shared tree, the development of a hybrid, adaptive persource and shared tree scheme, and the dynamic relocation of the RP in the shared tree.     

A pattern classification proposal for object‐oriented audio coding in MPEG‐4

The future MPEG4 standard will adopt an objectoriented encoding strategy whereby an audio source is encoded at a very low bitrate by adapting a suitable coding scheme to the local characteristics of the signal. One of the most delicate issues in this approach is that the overall performance of the audio encoder greatly depends on the accuracy with which the input signal is classified. This paper shows that the difficult problem of audio classification for objectoriented coding can be effectively solved by selecting a salient set of acoustic parameters and adopting a fuzzy model for each audio object, obtained by a soft computinghybrid learning tool. The audio classifier proposed operates at two levels: recognition of the class to which the input signal belongs (talkspurt, music, noise, signaling tones) and then recognition of the subclass to which it belongs. The results obtained show that fuzzy logic is a valid alternative to the matching techniques of a traditional pattern recognition approach.     

The Satchel system architecture: Mobile access to documents and services

Mobile professionals require access to documents and documentrelated services, such as printing, wherever they may be. They may also wish to give documents to colleagues electronically, as easily as with paper, facetoface, and with similar security characteristics. The Satchel system provides such capabilities in the form of a mobile browser, implemented on a device that professional people would be likely to carry anyway, such as a pager or mobile phone. Printing may be performed on any Satchelenabled printer, or any fax machine. Scanning, too, may be accomplished at any Satchelenabled scanner. Access rights to individual documents may be safely distributed, without regard to document formats. Access to document services is greatly simplified by the use of context sensitivity. The system has been extensively tested and evaluated. This paper describes the architecture of the Satchel system.     

The effects of asymmetry on TCP performance

In this paper, we study the effects of network asymmetry on endtoend TCP performance and suggest techniques to improve it. The networks investigated in this study include a wireless cable modem network and a packet radio network, both of which can form an important part of a mobile ad hoc network. In recent literature (e.g., [18]), asymmetry has been considered in terms of a mismatch in bandwidths in the two directions of a data transfer. We generalize this notion of bandwidth asymmetry to other aspects of asymmetry, such as latency and mediaaccess, and packet error rate, which are common in widearea wireless networks. Using a combination of experiments on real networks and simulation, we analyze TCP performance in such networks where the throughput achieved is not solely a function of the link and traffic characteristics in the direction of data transfer (the forward direction), but depends significantly on the reverse direction as well. We focus on bandwidth and latency asymmetries, and propose and evaluate several techniques to improve endtoend performance. These include techniques to decrease the rate of acknowledgments on the constrained reverse channel (ack congestion control and ack filtering), techniques to reduce source burstiness when acknowledgments are infrequent (TCP sender adaptation), and algorithms at the reverse bottleneck router to schedule data and acks differently from FIFO (acksfirst scheduling).     

Dynamic capacity allocation and hybrid multiplexing techniques for ATM wireless LANs

We consider digital wireless multimedia LANs and timevarying traffic rates. To deal effectively with the dynamics of the timevarying traffic rates, a Traffic Monitoring Algorithm (TMA) is deployed to dynamically allocate channel capacities to the heterogeneous traffics. The TMA is implemented as a higher level protocol that dictates the capacity boundaries within two distinct framed transmission techniques: a Framed Time DomainBased (FTDB) technique and a Framed CDMA (FCDMA) technique. The performance of the TMA in the presence of the FTDB technique is compared to its performance in the presence of the FCDMA technique for some traffic scenarios. The performance metrics used for the TMAFTDB and TMAFCDMA combinations are channel capacity utilization factors, traffic rejection rates, and traffic delays. It is found that the TMAFTDB is superior to the TMAFCDMA when the speed of the transmission links is relatively low and the lengths of the transmitted messages are relatively short. As the speed of the transmission links and the length of the transmitted messages increase, the TMAFCDMA eventually outperforms the TMAFTDB.     

An adaptive algorithm for optimizing the packet size used in wireless ARQ protocols

We develop an algorithm that allows an ARQ protocol to dynamically optimize the packet size based on estimates of the channel biterrorrate. Our algorithm is particularly useful for wireless and satellite channels where the biterrorrates tend to be relatively high and time variable. Our algorithm uses the acknowledgment history to make estimates of the channel biterrorrate, based on which the optimal packet size can be chosen. We develop a Markov chain model for the analysis of the system, under static channel conditions, and show that the algorithm can achieve close to optimal performance using a history of just 10,000 bits. We also use the Gilbert–Elliott twostate Markov channel to model dynamic channel conditions. We show, through simulation, that the algorithm performs well even under rapidly changing channel conditions. Finally, we discuss a maximum likelihood approach for choosing the packet size, which performs almost optimally but is much easier to implement.     

Adaptive multicast routing in multirate loss networks

In this paper, we study two versions of the multicast routing problem in multirate loss networks: complete and partial. In the complete version of the multicast routing problem, the identities of all destination nodes are available to the multicast routing algorithm at once. Conversely, in the partial version of the multicast problem, the identities of the destination nodes are revealed to the routing algorithm one by one. Although the complete version of the multicast routing problem, also known as the Steiner tree problem, has been well studied in the literature, less attention has been paid for the definition of link costs and evaluating the performance of multicast routing algorithm from the network revenue point of view. Therefore, in this paper, we first propose two approaches, namely, the Markov Decision Processbased (MDPbased) and Least Loaded Routingbased (LLRbased) approaches, for defining link costs. Several heuristic multicast routing algorithms are then proposed for both fully connected networks and sparsely connected networks. We have also proposed a new performance metric, referred to as fractional reward loss, for evaluating the performance of multicast routing algorithms. Our simulation results indicate that algorithms based on partial destination information yield worse performance than those based on complete information. We also found that, for fully connected networks, algorithms that use LLRbased link costs yield very competitive performance as compared to those that use MDP approach. However, for sparsely connected networks, LLRbased algorithms yield significantly worse performance as compared to the MDPbased algorithms.