Delay analysis of selective-repeat ARQ with applications to link adaptation in wireless packet data systems

Radio link control (RLC) protocols are typically employed for reliable in-sequence delivery of service data units (SDUs) in wireless packet data systems. The RLC layer segments packets obtained from the upper layer (referred to as SDUs) into smaller RLC transmission units (or blocks) and uses selective-repeat automatic repeat request (SR-ARQ) for error recovery of RLC blocks. In earlier work, SR-ARQ performance is typically characterized in terms of the long-term throughput or in-sequence delivery delay of RLC blocks. The SDU delivery delay which is a more meaningful measure of RLC performance (in terms of the service provided to a higher layer, e.g., transmission control protocol) has not been quantified. In this paper, we analyze the SDU delivery delay of SR-ARQ as a function of the SDU size and the channel coding scheme employed. Closed-form delay expressions as well as approximations are provided. The analysis is verified through enhanced general packet radio service RLC simulations. Based on the analysis, we propose that link adaptation be backlog dependent in order to reduce the SDU delivery delay at the RLC layer.     

Fluid analysis of delay and packet discard performance for QoSsupport in wireless networks

Providing quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees over wireless links requires thorough understanding and quantification of the interactions among the traffic source, the wireless channel, and the underlying link-layer error control mechanisms. We account for such interactions in an analytical model that we use to investigate the delay distribution and the packet discard rate (PDR) over a wireless link. Our analysis accommodates the inherent autocorrelations in both the traffic source as well as the channel error characteristics. An on-off fluid process is used to model the arrival of packets at the transmitter. These packets are temporarily stored in a first-in-first-out (FIFO) buffer before being transmitted over a channel with a time-varying and autocorrelated service rate. Using fluid analysis, we first derive the distribution for the queueing delay at the transmitter. As part of this analysis, we solve a fundamental fluid problem, namely, the probability distribution for the workload generated by a two-state fluid source over a fixed time interval. We then use the delay analysis to derive the PDR at the receiver. A closed-form expression for the effective bandwidth subject to a delay constraint is provided as a function of the source, channel, and error scheme parameters. This expression enables fast assessment of the bandwidth requirement of real-time traffic over QoS-based wireless networks. Numerical results and simulations are used to verify the adequacy of the analysis and to study the interactions among various system parameters     

AIRMAIL: A link-layer protocol for wireless networks

This paper describes the design and performance of a link-layer protocol for indoor and outdoor wireless networks. The protocol is asymmetric to reduce the processing load at the mobile, reliability is established by a combination of automatic repeat request and forward error correction, and link-layer packets are transferred appropriately during handoffs. The protocol is namedAIRMAIL (AsymmetrIc Reliable Mobile Access In Link-layer). The asymmetry is needed in the design because the mobile terminals have limited power and smaller processing capability than the base stations. The key ideas in the asymmetric protocol design consist of placing bulk of the intelligence in the base station as opposed to placing it symmetrically, in requiring the mobile terminal to combine several acknowledgments into a single acknowledgment to conserve power, and in designing the base stations to send periodic status messages, while making the acknowledgment from the mobile terminal eventdriven. The asymmetry in the protocol design results in a one-third reduction of compiled code. The forward error correction technique incorporates three levels of channel coding which interact adaptively. The motivation for using a combination of forward error correction and link-layer retransmissions is to obtain better performance in terms of end-to-end throughput and latency by correcting errors in an unreliable wireless channel in addition to end-to-end correction rather than by correcting errors only by end-to-end retransmissions. The coding overhead is changed adaptively so that bandwidth expansion due to forward error correction is minimized. Integrity of the link during handoffs (in the face of mobility) is handled by window management and state transfer. The protocol has been implemented. Experimental performance results based on the implementation are presented.     

Adaptive two-stage FEC scheme for scalable video transmission over wireless networks

In this paper, we present a two-stage forward error correction (FEC) scheme with an enhanced link-layer protocol especially for multimedia data transmission over wireless LANs. At the application layer, packet-level FEC (stage-one) is added across packets to correct packet losses due to congestion and route disruption. Bit-level FEC (stage-two) is then added to both application packets and stage-one FEC packets to recover bit errors from the link layer. Then at the link layer, header-CRC/FEC is used to enhance protection and to cooperate with the two-stage FEC scheme. The proposed scheme thus provides joint protection across the protocol stack. We explore both its bandwidth efficiency and video performance for the highly efficient and scalable MC-EZBC video codec using the network simulator ns-2. Our results show that the proposed scheme can effectively increase application-layer throughput, reduce both end-to-end transmission delay and application bandwidth fluctuation, and significantly improve video performance.     

TCP/IP link layer error mitigation for MIMO wireless links

This paper investigates the effect of link-layer error mitigation support in MIMO wireless linking systems, and compares connection approaches between SISO and MIMO at different BER operating points substantiated by analysis of captured channels. In particular, this paper concentrates on a packet-based TDD approach, with a link-layer error mitigation scheme based on selective-repeat ARQ of segmented IP packets. Analytical expressions are derived for transfer efficiency over such a system, and simulation results presented to verify performance in terms of application delay experienced by users under various error conditions. This is repeated for SISO and for three alternative MIMO connection arrangements. Result show the degree of improvement available through the incorporation of link-layer error mitigation based upon the selective repetition of erroneous sub-IP packets, and in particular that presenting decomposed MIMO bit-pipes exhibiting diverse error conditions to the link layer, may be advantageous.     

A lightweight network state estimation mechanism in ARQ-based wireless networks

Most multimedia applications implement some kind of packet losses analysis mechanism to trigger self-adaptation actions. However, error recovery mechanisms such as ARQ variants avoid packet losses at IP level. Then, there appears an impact into the delay that may indeed result on application-level losses due to samples arriving later than the scheduled playout time. In most cases such degradations are not detected until they are so severe than even losses at IP level appear. We propose a lightweight method that achieves a finer grain estimation. We prove mathematically the capability of modified versions of statistics of delay to predict the error ratio of the wireless link and the load of the wired backhaul. After deducing also simplified heuristics for proposed method, we analyze their estimation capabilities and provide guidance for selecting appropriate parameters. Finally, we test and adjust the algorithm to an specific scenario including mobile video streaming and VoIP calls.     

A packet-reordering solution to wireless losses in transmission control protocol

The wireless medium may cause substantial packet losses, rendering Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) inefficient. We propose a cross-layer solution by combining link-layer retransmission techniques and a solution for TCP packet reordering. It is costly to conduct link-layer retransmission with the constraint of orderly packet delivery. We require the link layer to provide reliable packet delivery, but without orderly delivery guarantee, thus transforming the problem of high packet error rates to the problem of packet reordering. The latter is dealt with by enhancing TCP with a solution for packet reordering. We justify our design by analyzing both general scenarios and the case of IEEE 802.11n. Our simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method is effective in improving TCP connection goodput in wireless networks.     

Error-resilient packet header compression

Full packet headers consume valuable bitrate, which is especially costly in satellite links and some terrestrial wireless links. This has motivated the compression of packet headers by exploiting their correlation via using finite-state machines. The drawback is that compression in the presence of channel errors (packet loss) may result in error propagation. We offer several designs by adapting error control codes for the requirements of packet header compression in uni-directional and bi-directional links, and explore the tradeoffs in complexity, delay, and system performance. For the bi-directional link, we propose a new design called predictive hybrid ARQ and evaluate its performance. Experiments show significant gains in link-layer throughput as well as improved application layer performance demonstrated via video transfer experiments.     

Analytical framework for simultaneous MAC packet transmission (SMPT) in a multicode CDMA wireless system

Stabilizing the throughput over wireless links is one of the key challenges in providing high-quality wireless multimedia services. Wireless links are typically stabilized by a combination of link-layer automatic repeat request (ARQ) mechanisms in conjunction with forward error correction and other physical layer techniques. In this paper, we focus on the ARQ component and study a novel class of ARQ mechanisms, referred to as simultaneous MAC packet transmission (SMPT). In contrast to the conventional ARQ mechanisms that transmit one packet at a time over the wireless air interface, SMPT exploits the parallel code channels provided by multicode code-division multiple access. SMPT stabilizes the wireless link by transmitting multiple packets in parallel in response to packet drops due to wireless link errors. While these parallel packet transmissions stabilize the link layer throughput, they also increase the interference level in a given cell of a cellular network or cluster of an ad hoc network. This increased interference reduces the number of traffic flows that can be simultaneously supported in a cell/cluster. We develop an analytical framework for the class of SMPT mechanisms and analyze the link-layer buffer occupancy and the code usage in a wireless system running some form of SMPT. Our analysis quantifies the tradeoff between increased link-layer quality of service and reduced number of supported flows in SMPT with good accuracy, as verified by simulations. In a typical scenario, SMPT reduces the probability of link-layer buffer overflow by over two orders of magnitude (thus enabling high-quality multimedia services, such as real-time video streaming) while supporting roughly 20% fewer flows than conventional ARQ. Our analytical framework provides a basis for resource management in wireless systems running some form of SMPT and optimizing SMPT mechanisms.     

Using channel state dependent packet scheduling to improve TCPthroughput over wireless LANs

In recent years, a variety of mobile computers equipped with wireless communication devices have become popular. These computers use applications and protocols, originally developed for wired desktop hosts, to communicate over wireless channels. Unlike wired networks, packets transmitted on wireless channels are often subject to burst errors which cause back to back packet losses. In this paper we study the effect of burst packet errors and error recovery mechanisms employed in wireless MAC protocols on the performance of transport protocols such as TCP. Most wireless LAN link layer protocols recover from packet losses by retransmitting lost segments. When the wireless channel is in a burst error state, most retransmission attempts fail, thereby causing poor utilization of the wireless channel. Furthermore, in the event of multiple sessions sharing a wireless link, FIFO packet scheduling can cause the HOL blocking effect, resulting in unfair sharing of the bandwidth. This observation leads to a new class of packet dispatching methods which explicitly take wireless channel characteristics into consideration in making packet dispatching decisions. We compare a variety of channel state dependent packet (CSDP) scheduling methods with a view towards enhancing the performance of transport layer sessions. Our results indicate that by employing a CSDP scheduler at the wireless LAN device driver level, significant improvement in channel utilization can be achieved in typical wireless LAN configurations. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Link quality estimation for arbitrary packet sizes over wireless links using packet reception events

The packet error rate of wireless links is known to increase with the length of packets. Yet, packet length is rarely taken into account in protocols and algorithms estimating the packet error rate. Still, it is an important factor that higher layer protocols need to be aware of. In this article, we systematically measure the relationship between packet length and packet error rate over a wide range of wireless links and technologies. On the basis of our measurements, we propose a simple empirical model that can capture this behavior. Using this model, multiple methods are proposed that can estimate the packet error rate for any packet length by sampling the link. We consider methods based on hello packets with controlled packet lengths as well as data packets, where the transmitted packet lengths cannot be controlled. We investigate the accuracy of the different estimation methods in various situations and show how they are able to predict the delivery ratio for different packet sizes.     

A slotted frequency-hopped multiple-access network with packetcombining

A frequency-hopped spread-spectrum (FH/SS) packet radio network is considered. Instead of discarding the received packets which were unsuccessfully decoded, the receiver keeps and combines the different received copies of the same packet to improve the throughput and reduce the delay necessary to transmit a packet successfully. It is shown that the throughput is substantially increased over a similar system where the uncorrectable packets are discarded. This system is equivalent to a fast frequency-hopped system where the diversity level is adapted according to the channel conditions. Reed-Solomon (RS) codes are used for error correction and detection     

基于平面路由的无线Mesh网切换技术

通过对无线Mesh网络区别于传统无线局域网的特性的分析,以及无线Mesh网的链路层切换机制、网络层切换机制的深入研究,提出了一种基于平面路由和移动IP的无线Mesh网络快速切换机制,并在该机制下给出了2种具体的实现方案。仿真分析表明,上述方案都充分利用了无线Mesh网络的特性,能够有效降低切换时延、减少数据包丢失率,基本可实现无线Mesh网络的无缝切换,并且能够保证与现有的IEEE802.11协议标准兼容。     

Cross‐layer design for energy efficient communication in wireless sensor networks

There is a plethora of recent research on high performance wireless communications using a cross‐layer approach in that adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) schemes at wireless physical layer are used for combating time varying channel fading and enhance link throughput. However, in a wireless sensor network, transmitting packets over deep fading channel can incur excessive energy consumption due to the usage of stronger forwarding error code (FEC) or more robust modulation mode. To avoid such energy inefficient transmission, a straightforward approach is to temporarily buffer packets when the channel is in deep fading, until the channel quality recovers. Unfortunately, packet buffering may lead to communication latency and buffer overflow, which, in turn, can result in severe degradation in communication performance. Specifically, to improve the buffering approach, we need to address two challenging issues: (1) how long should we buffer the packets? and (2) how to choose the optimum channel transmission threshold above which to transmit the buffered packets? In this paper, by using discrete‐time queuing model, we analyze the effects of Rayleigh fading over AMC‐based communications in a wireless sensor network. We then analytically derive the packet delivery rate and average delay. Guided by these numerical results, we can determine the most energy‐efficient operation modes under different transmission environments. Extensive simulation results have validated the analytical results, and indicates that under these modes, we can achieve as much as 40% reduction in energy dissipation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Link failure and congestion-aware reliable data delivery mechanism for mobile ad hoc networks

Link failures and packet drops due to congestion are two frequently occurring problems in mobile ad hoc networks, degrading the network performance significantly. In this paper, we propose a link failure and congestion-aware reliable data delivery (LCRDD) mechanism that jointly exploits local packet buffering and multilevel congestion detection and control approaches for increasing the data delivery performance. On the detection of link failure or congestive state, an LCRDD intermediate node buffers the incoming data packets at the transport layer queue and resumes transmission when the route is repaired locally. In addition, LCRDD’s multilevel congestion detection helps it to take the most appropriate action proactively. Thus, it offers increased reliability and throughput and decreased end-to-end packet delivery delay and routing overhead compared to state-of-the-art protocols, as shown in results of performance evaluations carried out in network simulator v-2.34.     

Packet dropping statistics of a data-link protocol for wireless local communications

We consider a data transmission system over a wireless channel, where packets are queued at the transmitter. Automatic repeat request is employed as the error control scheme, by which packets corrupted due to channel impairments are immediately retransmitted. We study the statistics of the packet dropping process due to buffer overflow. In particular, we propose a Markov approximation to model such losses. The delay performance of the packets that are admitted to the queue is studied, and extensions of the analysis to general nonindependent arrival processes are also presented.     

一种环境感知的无线Mesh网络自适应QoS路径选择算法

本文针对如何改善无线多跳Mesh网络的服务质量,满足无线多媒体业务对数据传输的带宽、时延、抖动的要求等问题,研究了一种基于无线信道状态和链路质量统计的MAC层最大重传次数的自适应调整算法。该算法通过对无线Mesh网络的无线信道环境的动态感知,利用分层判断法区分无线分组丢失的主要原因是无线差错还是网络拥塞导致,实时调整MAC层的最佳重传次数,降低无线网络中的分组冲突概率。基于链路状态信息的统计和最大重传策略,提出了一种启发式的基于环境感知的QoS路由优化机制HEAOR。该算法通过动态感知底层链路状态信息,利用灰色关联分析法自适应选择最优路径,在不增加系统复杂度的基础上,减少链路误判概率,提高传输效率。NS2仿真结果表明,HEAOR算法能有效减少重路由次数,降低链路失效概率,提高网络的平均吞吐率。本文提出的方法不仅能够优化MAC层的重传,而且通过发现跨层设计的优化参数实现对路径的优化选择。      

RED theory for quality of service provisioning in wireless communications

In this paper, we study the performance limit of a wireless communication system over a fading channel. The system under study consists of 1) a finite‐buffer discrete‐time queueing system on the link layer; and 2) a rate‐adaptive channel coding system on the physical layer. The objective of this paper is to analyze the relationship among data rate (R), packet error probability (E), and delay bound (D) under the interaction between the link layer and the physical layer. In our analysis, we consider three types of packet errors; that is, 1) packet drop due to full buffer; 2) packet drop due to delay bound violation; and 3) packet decoding error due to channel noise. We obtain an upper bound on the packet error probability. Furthermore, by minimizing the packet error probability over the transmission rate, we obtain an optimal rate control policy that guarantees the user‐specified data rate and delay bound. In the case of constant arrival, the optimal rate control policy results in a rate‐error‐delay triplet; then, by varying data rate and delay bound, we obtain rate‐error‐delay Pareto‐optimal surface, which serves as the performance limit of the system under study. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Packet data transmission over mobile radio channels

Since in mobile radio Rayleigh fading poses the main threat to accurate data transmission, a mathematical model of the dynamics of Rayleigh fading is used to explore the optimum duration of data packets. The performance criterion is the rate of information transfer through the mobile radio channel. In addition to packet size, the information rate depends on: the speed of the mobile terminal, the channel bit rate, the size of the packet header, and the fade margin of the modulation and coding techniques. In particular, attention is focused on line rates of 16 kb/s and 256 kb/s (which are representative of the rates proposed for digital mobile radio systems in North America and Europe, respectively). At 16 kb/s, the optimum packet size is approximately 17 B (8.5-ms duration). At 256 kb/s, maximum throughput occurs when the packet contains about 48 B (1.5-ms duration). The precise optimum depends on vehicle speed, header size, and fade margin. The optimum packets are considerably shorter than the 125-B packets customarily used in terrestrial and satellite systems     

A Pseudo-Bayesian ALOHA Algorithm with Mixed Priorities

In reservation-based multiple access protocols, before obtaining a contention-free access to the channel, a mobile terminal must wait for its request packet to be successfully sent to the base station. A pseudo-Bayesian ALOHA algorithm with multiple priorities is proposed in this paper to reduce the waiting time of delay sensitive request packets in a multimedia environment. Packets are transmitted in each slot according to a transmission probability based on the channel history and a priority parameter assigned to their respective priority class. An adaptation of the slotted protocol to the framed environment proposed for wireless ATM is also described. Simulation results are presented to show that the protocol offers a significant delay improvement for high priority packets with both Poisson and self-similar traffic while low priority packets only experience a slight performance degradation.