Optical-LSP Establishment and a QoS Maintenance Scheme Based on Differentiated Optical QoS Classes in OVPNs

A virtual private network (VPN) over Internet has the benefit of being cost-effective and flexible. However, it has difficulties providing sufficient QoS and adequate transmission capacity for high bandwidth services. Given the increasing demand for high bandwidth Internet and the demand for QoS assurances in a VPN over Internet, IP/generalized multi-protocol label switching (GMPLS) based on a control plane combined with a high-bandwidth, dense-wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) optical network is seen as a very favorable approach for realizing the future optical VPN (OVPN) over IP/GMPLS over DWDM. Within this architecture, providing QoS guaranteed multimedia services with a differentiated QoS guaranteed protocol framework with QoS recovery is one of the key issues to implement. Therefore, we suggest in this paper optical-label switched path (O-LSP) establishment and its QoS maintenance scheme based on differentiated optical QoS-service (DOQoS) classes. They are the key components for this DOQoS framework in assuring end-to-end QoS in an OVPN over IP/GMPLS over DWDM architecture.     

An Adaptive Multicast Tree with QoS Support for Heterogeneous Recipients

This paper proposes a new protocol called MQ, Multicast with QoS, which supports multimedia group communications with QoS guarantees for heterogeneous recipients. With MQ, while resource reservation is de-coupled from QoS multicast routing, they are integrated in a way to avoid the problem of sender-oriented path determination, a problem that occurs when RSVP is used in conjunction with QoS routing for heterogeneous reservations. Being a truly receiver-oriented and integrated scheme for multimedia multicasting, MQ supports such integration in a robust, scalable and loop-free way, accommodates heterogeneous users with varied QoS, dynamically adjusts QoS trees to improve resource utilization, and benefits from being an integrated mechanism to ensure end-to-end QoS services. We have also conducted simulations to evaluate the performance of MQ. MQ demonstrates its advantages to conventional loosely coupled integration of IP multicasting, resource reservation and QoS routing, in terms of better accommodation of heterogeneous users, higher scalability, lower blocking probability for users to join groups with service guarantee, and more efficient resource utilization to enhance system performance.     

Opportunistic Multi-Access: Multiuser Diversity, Relay-Aided Opportunistic Scheduling, and Traffic-Aided Smooth Admission Control

We study multi-access control in opportunistic communication systems, and propose two new schemes to address channel asymmetry and throughput-guaranteed admission control, respectively. We first devise a relay-aided opportunistic scheduling (RAOS) scheme, in which a user can choose to communicate with the base station either directly or using multiple hops (relay transmissions). We develop relay/direct link construction algorithms using either a channel-capacity-based criterion or a throughput-based criterion, and devise opportunistic scheduling schemes accordingly. Our results show that in the presence of channel asymmetry across users, the RAOS scheme performs significantly better than Qualcomm's HDR scheme. Next, we propose a traffic-aided smooth admission control (SAC) scheme that aims to guarantee throughput provisioning. Simply put, in the SAC scheme, the admission decision is spread over a trial period, by increasing gradually the amount of the time resource allocated to incoming users. Specifically, using the modified weighted proportional fair (WPF) scheduling, we devise a QoS driven weight adaptation algorithm, and the weights assigned to new users are increased in a guarded manner. Then an admission decision is made based on the measured throughput within a time-out window. A key feature is that we exploit explicitly the traffic information and throughput requirements in devising the back-off time. Our results show that the proposed SAC scheme works well in opportunistic communication systems.     

A necessary and sufficient condition for right coprime factorization of nonlinear feedback systems

In this short note, we establish a simple, yet precise, necessary and sufficient condition for the right coprime factorization of a nonlinear feedback control system. As a consequence, we also obtain similar conditions for the stable right coprime factorizations of the nonlinear feedback control system.     

VoIP Protection and Performance Improvement

A lot of ongoing work is geared towards improving the reliability, performance and QoS characteristics of service provider IP networks. In contrast, we propose novel enterprise-based techniques that exploit the fact that many enterprises are multi/dual-homed. In a form of service-aware routing, certain (e.g., VoIP) packets are duplicated (e.g., at one edge router) and sent over multiple service providers. After traversing the service provider networks, only the first-to-arrive packets are kept and the later-arriving copies are discarded. In so doing, the result is not only better protection against node and link failures, and packet losses and errors, but also better QoS performance under normal (fault-free) operation. The packet-duplication process can be policy-based and take into account costs, bandwidth, and priority issues, permitting the system to behave like a simple smart router that automatically and continually makes use of the best (lowest-delay) service provider. In this paper, we present the main ideas behind the proposal, along with some initial analytical and experimental/simulation results and insights from a Linux-based implementation.     

Improving call admission policies in wireless networks

It is well known that the call admission policy can have a big impact on the performance of a wireless network. However, the nonlinear dependence of new calls and handoff calls makes the search for a better call admission policy – in terms of effective utilization – a difficult task. Many studies on optimal policies have not taken the correct dependence into consideration. As a result, the reported gains in those studies cannot be confirmed in a real network. In this paper we develop a solution to the problem of finding better call admission policies. The technique consists of three components. First, we search for the policy in an approximate reducedcomplexity model. Second, we modify the Linear Programming technique for the inherently nonlinear policysearch problem. Third, we verify the performance of the found policy in the exact, highcomplexity, analytical model. The results shown in the paper clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.     

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.     

Routing with multiple QoS requirements for supporting multimedia applications

Distributed multimedia applications usually require multiple QoS performance guarantees. However, in general, searching such a route in the network, to support multimedia applications, is known to be NPcomplete. In this paper, we propose a new heuristic QoS routing algorithm, called QoSR_DKS, for supporting multimedia applications in highspeed networks. QoSR_DKS is a modification of rulebased Fallback routing and Dijkstra algorithms. It can search a unicast route that would have enough network resources so that multiple QoS requirements (bandwidth, delay, and delay jitter) of the requested flow could be guaranteed. Its worst case computation time complexity is the same as that of the Dijkstra algorithm, i.e., O(V²), where V is the number of nodes in the network. Extensive simulations were done with various network sizes, upto 500 nodes networks, where each node uses Weighted Fair Queueing (WFQ) service discipline. Results show that QoSR_DKS is very efficient. It could always find the QoS satisfying route, whenever there exists one (success rate is optimal), and its average computation time is near to simple shortest path Dijkstra algorithm.     

Incorporating QoS into IP Enterprise Network Design

Recent trends in enterprise networks are radically changing the composition of these systems. Instead of having diverse data networks, each of which is dedicated to a single class of applications, corporations are moving to a unified IP (Internet Protocol) Intranet. Traffic demands on these Intranets include delay-sensitive traffic that requires better than the standard best effort service provided by IP networks. As a result, various new technologies and strategies to provide end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) within IP enterprise networks are being developed and implemented. However, current IP network design methodologies are limited in that they can only design networks providing best effort service or else, a single delay constraint for all traffic. In this paper, we discuss a new design methodology for IP enterprise networks that takes into account the new technologies and techniques that can provide QoS. In particular, we identify and discuss the most crucial design issues that must be addressed when specialized queuing-based QoS strategies are used in the network. We describe the new constraints introduced by the underlying technologies and discuss how these factors affect the formulation of the IP Enterprise Network Design Problem. We then describe some specific features and methodologies that have been incorporated into a network design-planning tool for IP enterprise networks with QoS.     

Mobility Management for Hierarchical Wireless Networks

In this paper, we consider the mobility management in large, hierarchically organized multihop wireless networks. The examples of such networks range from battlefield networks, emergency disaster relief and law enforcement etc. We present a novel network addressing architecture to accommodate mobility using a Home Agent concept akin to mobile IP. We distinguish between the physical routing hierarchy (dictated by geographical relationships between nodes) and logical hierarchy of subnets in which the members move as a group (e.g., company, brigade, battalion in the battlefield). The performance of the mobility management scheme is investigated through simulation.