VoIP mobility in IP/cellular network internetworking

This article explores VoIP mobility in the context of IP and cellular networks interworking. ITU-T Rec. H.323 gateways provide the interconnection between IP networks and switched circuit networks. They allow a call originating from an SCN phone to be transmitted over an IP network to an H.323 terminal, or bridged to another SCN phone. While H.323 provides interoperability with other SCN terminals, the major efforts have been focused on IP/wired SCN (PSTN, ISDN, etc.) interworking. In this article we discuss the challenges associated with the interworking between IP networks and cellular networks through H.323 gateways, and propose an innovative approach using the existing call transfer supplementary service to provide VoIP mobility in the H.323 IP telephony networks. The proposed approach uses existing components in the H.323 standard, thereby allowing VoIP mobility service in hybrid IP/cellular networks to be a value-added feature in the existing H.323-compliant Internet telephony systems     

A reliable quality of service aware fault tolerant gateway discovery protocol for vehicular networks

A great interest in vehicular ad‐hoc networks has been noticed by the research community. General goals of vehicular networks are to enhance safety on the road and to ensure the convenience of passengers by continuously providing them, in real time, with information and entertainment options such as routes to destinations, traffic conditions, facilities' information, and multimedia/Internet access. Indeed, time efficient systems that have high connectivity and low bandwidth usage are most needed to cope with realistic traffic mobility conditions. One foundation of such a system is the design of an efficient gateway discovery protocol that guarantees robust connectivity between vehicles, while assuring Internet access. Little work has been performed on how to concurrently integrate load balancing, quality of service (QoS), and fault tolerant mechanisms into these protocols. In this paper, we propose a reliable QoS‐aware and location aided gateway discovery protocol for vehicular networks by the name of fault tolerant location‐based gateway advertisement and discovery. One of the features of this protocol is its ability to tolerate gateway routers and/or road vehicle failure. Moreover, this protocol takes into consideration the aspects of the QoS requirements specified by the gateway requesters; furthermore, the protocol insures load balancing on the gateways as well as on the routes between gateways and gateway clients. We discuss its implementation and report on its performance in contrast with similar protocols through extensive simulation experiments using the ns‐2 simulator. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

VoIP traffic in wireless mesh networks: a MOS‐based routing scheme

Support of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services in wireless mesh networks requires implementation of efficient policies to support low‐delay data delivery. Multipath routing is typically supported in wireless mesh networks at the network level to provide high fault tolerance and load balancing because links in the proximity of the wireless mesh gateways can be very stressed and overloaded, thus causing scarce performance. As a consequence of using multipath solutions, lower delay and higher throughput can be supported also when a given path is broken because of mobility or bad channel conditions, and alternative routes are available. This can be a relevant improvement especially when assuming that real‐time traffic, such as VoIP, travels into the network. In this paper, we address the problem of Quality of Service (QoS) support in wireless mesh networks and propose a multipath routing strategy that exploits the Mean Opinion Score (MOS) metric to select the most suitable paths for supporting VoIP applications and performing adaptive load balancing among the available paths to equalize network traffic. Performance results assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach when compared with other existing methodologies. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self‐adaptive routing protocols for integrating cellular networks,WLANs, and MANETs

A growing need to have ubiquitous connectivity has motivated our research to provide continuous connection between various wireless platforms such as cellular networks, wireless local area networks (WLANs), and mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). In this paper, we consider integration at the routing layer and propose two adaptable routing protocols (IRP‐RD and IRP‐PD) that exploit topology information stored at the fixed network components (cellular base stations and WLAN access points) for the route discovery and maintenance processes. Our proposed protocols can provide connectivity to the cellular network and/or WLAN hotspots through multihop routing, while differ in the gateway discovery approach used. In IRP‐RD, multihop routes to gateways to the cellular network or WLAN hot spots are discovered on demand, while in IRP‐PD out of coverage users proactively maintain routes to the gateways. Furthermore, proposed protocols can be used in any heterogeneous scenario, combining a cellular network and WLANs operating in infrastructure or ad hoc (MANET) mode. We provide simulation results that demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed integrated routing protocols and show the advantages and drawbacks of each gateway discovery approach in different heterogeneous scenarios. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An efficient traffic control system using dynamic thresholding techniques in wireless mesh networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) depend on a resilient and high‐performance infrastructure to provide users pervasive Internet access. In WMNs, all Internet traffic will be forwarded to the Internet gateways. Hence, these gateways are generally bottleneck nodes. This work proposes a traffic control technique to reduce the bottleneck problem and increase the utilization of network resources. Our approach provides a traffic control strategy that exploits dynamic techniques to adjust the threshold according to the traffic load of each gateway. The base threshold is defined in order to effectively control the traffic. When the current load exceeds the threshold of a gateway, the traffic redirection strategy is implemented by switching border nodes. The service regions can be adjusted for each gateway based on the traffic load. Furthermore, the proposed dynamic thresholding approaches can distribute the workloads of gateways and maintain the thresholds of any two gateways within a level range, making an in‐band balance of load. Thus, our proposed scheme can handle the unnecessary traffic redirection and reduce the traffic control overhead for various distributions of traffic. Experimental results demonstrate that our scheme outperforms other schemes in terms of packet delivery ratio and efficiency, especially in bursty traffic environments. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimized asset planning for minimizing latency in wireless sensor networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) has been attracting lots of interest in recent years. In such networks sensors data are collected over multi-hop routes at one or multiple base-stations (gateway nodes) for processing. In many WSN applications such as disaster management and combat field surveillance, rapid response to detected events is necessary and thus data latency should be minimal. Given the sensor’s energy and radio range constraints, direct communication with the gateway is inefficient and often infeasible for most deployed sensors. An intuitive approach to limit data latency is to increase the population of gateways and place them in the vicinity of sensors. However, gateway nodes are typically costly and thus it is desired to limit their count. Therefore, there is a need to balance between such conflicting requirements. In this paper, we pursue an integrated approach to asset planning in WSNs so that the data latency is minimized. The goal is to determine the least number of gateways and identify where to place them in the network in order to achieve a certain delay bound on data delivery. We formulate an optimization model for the asset planning problem and present effective algorithms for solving it. The proposed solution scheme employs contemporary search heuristics such as k-means and genetic algorithms. Validation results confirm the effectiveness of our approach in achieving the desired design goals.     

Mobile Internet telephony: mobility extension to H.323

This paper studies mobility extensions to ITU-T Rec. H.323 for the support of mobile Internet telephony. Internet telephony, also known as voice-over Internet protocol (IP) (VoIP), requires the transmission of two-way and real-time traffic over IP-based networks. The current version of H.323 allows IP telephony and the interoperability of the Internet with switched circuit networks (SCN). However, VoIP mobility has not been previously widely considered, where VoIP mobility refers to the mobility within the scope of IP telephony. We focus on terminal mobility for VoIP. We investigate the influence of mobility on the H.323 layer and propose an H.323 mobility solution to be implemented over the IP layer. Two approaches to mobility extensions to H.323 are described: using ad hoc multipoint conference expansion and using IP multicasting to emulate mobility. Besides, we have also shown that the proposed ad hoc expansion approach shares many properties with the alternative of using IP multicasting for mobility. Hence, the call signaling procedure for the ad hoc expansion approach is also applicable to the multicasting approach. Since ad hoc multipoint expansion has been defined in H.323, our solution introduces no additional entities to H.323 and requires minimal modifications to the existing H.323 protocol. Such mobility extensions can serve as a value-added feature for the Internet telephony systems compliant to the H.323 standard     

Real-time multimedia over ATM: RMOA

RMOA is a new ATM Forum standard addressing the transport of H.323 VoIP traffic over ATM-based Internet backbones. It defines a new H.323 gateway devised to carry H.323 real-time media streams by taking advantage of the quality of service features of ATM. The approach is extremely efficient in that it reduces the protocol overhead on the ATM transport     

Voice over IP signaling: H.323 and beyond

Signaling has been one of the key areas of Voice over IP (VoIP) technologies since inception. H.323 was the key protocol that allowed interoperability of VoIP products and moved the industry away from the initial proprietary solutions. Once the VoIP industry started maturing, some limitations of H.323 came to light. In this article we provide an overview of H.323, describe its capabilities, and discuss how its limitations are being addressed using the concept of gateway decomposition. We also discuss how H.323 can coexist with other protocols such as MGCP, H.248, and SIP which are attracting a lot of interest in the VoIP industry today     

Distributed XML‐based network management using JPVM

The proliferation of the Internet and related applications has led to an increasing need for a more efficient and scalable network management framework. As the size of networks increases, more challenges are presented to network managers. One of these challenges is how to distribute the management tasks to achieve efficiency and scalability. In this paper, we present a framework using JPVM to distribute the management work among multiple gateways. We compare the performance of this approach and that of the single gateway approach. Both approaches are DOM‐based. Our findings show that the parallel approach can considerably reduce the response time for requesting the management information from multiple devices. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Domain load balancing routing for multi-gateway wireless mesh networks

As Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are typically used for Internet access, most traffic is routed through the gateways which connect WMN to the wired network. As a result, the gateways tend to get congested and balancing of the traffic load of gateways is critical. In this paper, we consider applications that require continuous provision of a certain bandwidth to a server located at the wired network. If a path that satisfies the bandwidth request cannot be found, the request will be rejected, so that load imbalance will result underutilization of the network capacity. We present a novel load balancing routing algorithm for maximizing the network utilization (i.e., accommodating service requests as many as possible) for multi-gateway WMNs. In the proposed scheme, a WMN is divided into domains. Each domain is served by one gateway, so that all traffic of a domain is served by the corresponding gateway. Our scheme determines routing to balance the traffic load among domains, and then performs load balancing routing within each domain. Simulation results show that in square grid topologies, our intra-domain routing achieves near optimal performance with about 70% less overhead than the existing schemes. Our inter-domain load balancing scheme outperforms the existing heuristics by up to 25% while achieving about 80% performance of the optimal solution.     

Software Protocol for Handling ISDN in the Packet-Switched Network

The Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) provides basic architecture for existing, as well as future residential plus business communications. ISDN overlayed with CCS#7 of a digital PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) can be the ultimate, ubiquitous network for circuit switch (voice, data), packet switch (voice, data), and private line (voice, data) applications. Assuming that the present ISDN has to interwork in the present physically separate overlayed networks (voice and data), significant problems are expected to emerge for designing hardware and linking softwares for handling packet traffic. In this paper, the software-related problems, when ISDN packet distribution nodes have to handle an ISDN interface, will be outlined with an ISDN software protocol solution. An approximation of the delay involved in the telephone switching system which is part of ISDN processing as well as the delay for the interface gateways, the HOST computer nodes, and the LAN and WAN computer nodes will be identified and formulated to reflect the total performance measure defined. Major emphasis is given to flow and congestion control performance measures in the ISDN Gateways, which are analyzed and simulated with the assistance of the basic delay table transfer software model developed for the IMPS and gateways in the ARPANET, MILNET, and MINET. The performance evaluation of this basic ISDN interfacing software, which only involved one ISDN level, i.e., the HOST or gateway and its related subnetworks, is simulated on sections of these networks to illustrate its congestion control effectiveness. There are six mathematical software techniques to account for end-to-end delay, which form the basis for the solution to these ISDN software-hardware problems in the Interface Gateways connecting the electronic switch to the computer network components.     

VTOA/VolP/N-ISDN Telephony Gateway

This article presents the architecture and implementation of a telephony gateway for interworking between N- ISDN, ATM and IP telephony. In this way, interworking is achieved both within private networks and with the PSTN, address translation being performed according to both the vtoa (atm interface) and H .323 (ip interface) specifications. The gateway implementation is based on a PC, presenting a cost- effective alternative to the equipment currently available on the market. Moreover, its highly modular software architecture allows new telephony interfaces to be easily added.     

Controllably mobile infrastructure for low energy embedded networks

We discuss the use of mobility to enhance network performance for a certain class of applications in sensor networks. A major performance bottleneck in sensor networks is energy since it is impractical to replace the batteries in embedded sensor nodes post-deployment. A significant portion of the energy expenditure is attributed to communications and, in particular, the nodes close to the sensor network gateways used for data collection typically suffer a large overhead as these nodes must relay data from the remaining network. Even with compression and in-network processing to reduce the amount of communicated data, all the processed data must still traverse these nodes to reach the gateway. We discuss a network infrastructure based on the use of controllably mobile elements to reduce the communication energy consumption at the energy constrained nodes and, thus, increase useful network lifetime. In addition, our approach yields advantages in delay-tolerant networks and sparsely deployed networks. We first show how our approach helps reduce energy consumption at battery constrained nodes. Second, we describe our system prototype, which utilizes our proposed approach to improve the energy performance. As part of the prototyping effort, we experienced several interesting design choices and trade-offs that affect system capabilities and performance. We describe many of these design challenges and discuss the algorithms developed for addressing these. In particular, we focus on network protocols and motion control strategies. Our methods are tested using a practical system and do not assume idealistic radio range models or operation in unobstructed environments.     

An architecture for residential Internet telephony service

A new architecture that can be used for offering an Internet telephony service to residential customers is introduced. The architecture addresses scalability and availability requirements of mass-market deployment of carrier-grade services and supports interconnection with SS7 for Internet telephony calls to the public switched telephone network. The architecture is based on the concept of a gateway decomposition that separates the media transformation function of today's H.323 gateways from the gateway control function of the gateways and centralizes the intelligence in a call agent. The media gateway control protocol is introduced as the protocol between the call agent that assumes the gateway control function and the gateway that provides just the media transformation function. Interworking between the architecture and the public switched telephone network, the session initiation protocol, and H.323 are also discussed     

应用于无线传感器网络的语音传输系统的设计与实现

随着宽带网络和信息技术的日益普及、企业信息化需求的进一步提高,回话网络、Internet以及移动网络三网分离的局面已不能满足企业办公需要,因此需要一种整合多种通信方式,对统一消息数据进行综合管理的企业融合通信技术。另一方面,随着短距离无线通信技术的成熟与发展,短距离无线通信技术同样需要融入固话网络、Internet以及移动网络。本文在分析无线传感器网络技术的基础上,提出了一种新型的VoIP接入网关的设计方案,给出了一种使用IP网络电话的方式;对VoIP接入网关的硬件设计及系统结构做了详细的分析;对VoIP接入网关的整体硬件进行了详细的设计并给出PCB设计实物。     

Gateway load balancing using multiple QoS parameters in a hybrid MANET

A Mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a self configurable wireless network in which mobile nodes communicate with each other in a multihop fashion without any pre-installed infrastructure. A MANET can be considered to be a standalone network. To enhance the connectivity of a MANET it can be connected to the fixed network, thus forming a heterogeneous network. The integration of MANET and the Internet is called a hybrid MANET which is facilitated by special nodes called Internet gateway nodes. Load balancing among gateways is a challenging task when a MANET is connected to Internet. Gateway nodes with higher loads will lead to disconnected networks and depletes the node’s resources which include their batteries, memory and bandwidth quickly. Gateway selection based on the shortest path may increase traffic concentration on one particular gateway which leads to congestion and increases delay in the network. In this paper a QoS based load balancing mechanism has been proposed among multiple gateway nodes that provide communication between mobile nodes and fixed nodes in the Internet to select lightly loaded gateways so that more packets will be delivered to the fixed host in the Internet. The proposed QoS based scheme selects four QoS parameters that are (1) connecting degree, (2) interface queue length, (3) routing table entries and (4) hop count. A weight based method is used to select the gateway which combines all four QoS metrics. Simulation results demonstrate that when compared with individual parameter, the average ETE delay, queue size and traffic load of gateway generated by proposed algorithm is decreased by 17, 25 and 15 % respectively and when compared with existing schemes, the average ETE delay, queue size and traffic load of gateway is decreased by 25, 25 and 16 % respectively.     

VoIP信令协议SIP和H.323的比较

VoIP系统凭借其低廉的话费和较好的语音质量,已经成为重要的电信业务,并有取代传统长途业务的趋势.许多组织研究并制定了IP网络上呼叫的协议标准,但有两种IP电话信令和控制标准最具有影响力.一种是ITU推荐的H.323协议,另一种是IETF的SIP.这两种协议代表了解决同一问题的两种不同的方法:H.323是信令基于ISDN Q.931和早期推荐的H系列协议的传统的电路交换的方法,而SIP是一种支持基于HTTP的IP网络的超轻量协议标准.本文,我们主要针对SIP和H.323的体系结构,可靠性,复杂性,可扩展性,可伸缩性以及支持业务类型方面进行比较.     

A Traffic Engineering Approach for Placement and Selection of Network Services

Network services are provided by means of dedicated service gateways, through which traffic flows are directed. Existing work on service gateway placement has been primarily focused on minimizing the length of the routes through these gateways. Only limited attention has been paid to the effect these routes have on overall network performance. We propose a novel approach for the service placement problem, which takes into account traffic engineering considerations. Rather than trying to minimize the length of the traffic flow routes, we take advantage of these routes in order to enhance the overall network performance. We divide the problem into two subproblems: finding the best location for each service gateway, and selecting the best service gateway for each flow. We propose efficient algorithms for both problems and study their performance. Our main contribution is showing that placement and selection of network services can be used as effective tools for traffic engineering.     

Locating internet gateways to minimize nonlinear congestion costs

We investigate the impact of the locations of the gateways on the performance of the internet. We consider the problem of determining (i) the routing assignments for the intranet and internet traffic and (ii) the number of gateways and their locations to interconnect existing data networks to minimize a linear combination of the average internet and intranet packet delays subject to a cost constraint on the amount to be spent to establish the gateways. This joint routing and topological design problem is important in the design of internets and should be solved before networks are actually interconnected. This problem is formulated as a nonlinear combinatorial optimization problem. When the gateway locations are fixed, the resulting routing problem is not a convex programming problem. This is unexpected since the routing problem in datagram networks is usually formulated as a convex program. We develop an algorithm based upon Lagrangian relaxation to solve this problem. In the computational experiments, the algorithm was shown to be effective in interconnecting (i) two WANs and (ii) two grid networks. The experiments also showed that the algorithm finds better feasible solutions than an exchange heuristic