TCP Performance in IEEE 802.11-Based Ad Hoc Networks with Multiple Wireless Lossy Links

We propose a packet-level model to investigate the impact of channel error on the transmission control protocol (TCP) performance over IEEE-802.11-based multihop wireless networks. A Markov renewal approach is used to analyze the behavior of TCP Reno and TCP Impatient NewReno. Compared to previous work, our main contributions are listed as follows: 1) modeling multiple lossy links, 2) investigating the interactions among TCP, Internet Protocol (IP), and media access control (MAC) protocol layers, specifically the impact of 802.11 MAC protocol and dynamic source routing (DSR) protocol on TCP throughput performance, 3) considering the spatial reuse property of the wireless channel, the model takes into account the different proportions between the interference range and transmission range, and 4) adopting more accurate and realistic analysis to the fast recovery process and showing the dependency of throughput and the risk of experiencing successive fast retransmits and timeouts on the packet error probability. The analytical results are validated against simulation results by using GloMoSim. The results show that the impact of the channel error is reduced significantly due to the packet retransmissions on a per-hop basis and a small bandwidth delay product of ad hoc networks. The TCP throughput always deteriorates less than ~ 10 percent, with a packet error rate ranging from 0 to 0.1. Our model also provides a theoretical basis for designing an optimum long retry limit for IEEE 802.11 in ad hoc networks.     

A Two-State Markov-Based Wireless Error Model for Bluetooth Networks

Data transmission over wireless networks is challenging due to the occurrence of burst errors, and packet loss caused by such errors seriously limits the maximum achievable throughput of wireless networks. To tailor efficient transmission schemes, it is essential to develop a wireless error model that can provide insight into the behavior of wireless transmissions. In this study, we investigate the wireless error model of Bluetooth networks. We study the FHSS feature of Bluetooth using both ordinary hopping kernels and Adaptive Frequency Hopping (AFH) kernels, and design analytical error models accordingly to capture the channel behavior of Bluetooth networks. We evaluate the proposed models by comparing the analytical results to the simulation results obtained by Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms. The results show that our analytical models can represent the channel behavior of Bluetooth networks in all test cases.     

Performance of a wireless access protocol on correlatedRayleigh-fading channels with capture

The throughput performance of a wireless media access protocol taking into account the effect of correlated channel fading, capture, and propagation delay is analyzed. For efficient access on the uplink (mobile-to-base-station link), the protocol makes use of the uplink channel status information which is conveyed to the mobiles through a busy/idle flag broadcast on the downlink (base-station-to-mobile link). A first-order Markov model is used to describe the correlation in the packet success/failure process on a Rayleigh-fading channel. The analytical results obtained through the first-order Markov approximation of the channel are compared to those obtained from an independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) channel model. The Markovian-fading channel model is shown to provide better performance results than the i.i.d. channel model. Simulations show that a first-order Markov approximation of the Rayleigh-fading process is quite accurate. An enhanced version of the access protocol to take advantage of the memory in the fading channel behavior is proposed and analyzed. The effect of retransmission of erroneous data packets and propagation delay on the throughput is also analyzed. It is shown that the access protocol with an error detect (ED) feature is efficient in slow fading (e.g., pedestrian user speeds), whereas a retransmission protocol is more efficient in fast fading (e.g., vehicular user speeds)     

Channel-quality-based opportunistic scheduling with ARQ in multi-rate wireless networks: modeling and analysis

In this paper, we develop a novel framework for analyzing radio link level performance for opportunistic scheduling with automatic repeat request (ARQ)-based error control in multi-rate wireless networks. The multi-rate transmission is assumed to be achieved through adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) to adjust the transmission rate according to the channel condition. The residual error effect due to each AMC setting is counteracted by means of a limited persistence ARQ protocol. The novelty of the proposed analytical framework lies in the fact that we are able to derive complete statistics (in terms of probability mass function) for both short-term and long-term performance measures such as system throughput, per-flow throughput, inter-success delay under both uncorrelated and correlated wireless channels. These performance measures can also be obtained in case of non-identical channels for different users. Analytical results are validated through simulations and the impacts of channel behavior on the different radio link level performance metrics are investigated.     

Enhancement to IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function to Reduce Packet Retransmissions Under Imperfect Channel Conditions

In this paper, we provide an extended model for analytical analysis of IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networks under noisy wireless channel. A reservation stage is introduced in the Markov chain model to reduce unnecessary retransmissions in the case of transmission failure due to channel error. A lot of work has been carried out to enhance the performance of 802.11 distributed coordination function in the error free channel. Throughput enhancement of 802.11 medium access control protocol under error prone channel was still missing in the available literature. Through the analysis result it is shown that the proposed method significantly improves the performance of the backoff algorithm when the reservation stage is employed in the Markov chain model. The analysis result is validated by using the network simulator tool ns-2. The proposed modifications can be employed in the Markov chain model of any backoff algorithm.     

A Markov-Based Channel Model Algorithm for Wireless Networks

Techniques for modeling and simulating channel conditions play an essential role in understanding network protocol and application behavior. In [11], we demonstrated that inaccurate modeling using a traditional analytical model yielded suboptimal error control protocol parameters choices. In this paper, we demonstrate that time-varying effects on wireless channels result in wireless traces which exhibit non-stationary behavior over small window sizes. We then present an algorithm that extracts stationary components from a collected trace in order to provide analytical channel models that, relative to traditional approaches, more accurately represent characteristics such as burstiness, statistical distribution of errors, and packet loss processes. Our algorithm also generates artificial traces with the same statistical characteristics as actual collected network traces. For validation, we develop a channel model for the circuit-switched data service in GSM and show that it: (1) more closely approximates GSM channel characteristics than traditional Markov models and (2) generates artificial traces that closely match collected traces' statistics. Using these traces in a simulator environment enables future protocol and application testing under different controlled and repeatable conditions.     

Saturation throughput analysis of multi‐rate IEEE 802.11 wireless networks

IEEE 802.11 protocol supports adaptive rate mechanism, which selects the transmission rate according to the condition of the wireless channel, to enhance the system performance. Thus, research of multi‐rate IEEE 802.11 medium access control (MAC) performance has become one of the hot research topics. In this paper, we study the performance of multi‐rate IEEE 802.11 MAC over a Gaussian channel. An accurate analytical model is presented to compute the system saturation throughput. We validate our model in both single‐rate and multi‐rate networks through various simulations. The results show that our model is accurate and channel error has a significant impact on system performance. In addition, our numerical results show that the performance of single‐rate IEEE 802.11 DCF with basic access method is better than that with RTS/CTS mechanism in a high‐rate and high‐load network and vice versa. In a multi‐rate network, the performance of IEEE 802.11 DCF with RTS/CTS mechanism is better than that with basic access method in a congested and error‐prone wireless environment. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modeling TCP SACK performance over wireless channels with semi-reliable ARQ/FEC

Providing reliable data communications over wireless channels is a challenging task because time-varying wireless channel characteristics often lead to bit errors. These errors result in loss of IP packets and, consequently, TCP segments encapsulated into these packets. Since TCP cannot distinguish packet losses due to bit corruption from those due to network congestion, any packet loss caused by wireless channel impairments leads to unnecessary execution of the TCP congestion control algorithms and, hence, sub-optimal performance. Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) and Forward Error Correction (FEC) try to improve communication reliability and reduce packet losses by detecting and recovering corrupted bits. Most analytical models that studied the effect of ARQ and FEC on TCP performance assumed that the ARQ scheme is perfectly persistent (i.e., completely reliable), thus a frame is always successfully transmitted irrespective of the number of transmission attempts it takes. In this paper, we develop an analytical cross-layer model for a TCP connection running over a wireless channel with a semi-reliable ARQ scheme, where the amount of transmission attempts is limited by some number. The model allows to evaluate the joint effect of stochastic properties of the wireless channel characteristics and various implementation-specific parameters on TCP performance, which makes it suitable for performance optimization studies. The input parameters include the bit error rate, the value of the normalized autocorrelation function of bit error observations at lag 1, the strength of the FEC code, the persistency of ARQ, the size of protocol data units at different layers, the raw data rate of the wireless channel, and the bottleneck link buffer size.     

Performance Analysis of Network Coding Based Two-Way Relay Wireless Networks Deploying IEEE 802.11

In this paper, we investigate the performance analysis of the IEEE 802.11 DCF protocol at the data link layer. We analyze the impact of network coding in saturated and non-saturated traffic conditions. The cross-layer analytical framework is presented in analyzing the performance of the encode-and-forward (EF) relaying wireless networks. This situation is employed at the physical layer under the conditions of non-saturated traffic and finite-length queue at the data link layer. First, a model of a two-hop EF relaying wireless channel is proposed as an equivalent extend multi-dimensional Markovian state transition model in queuing analysis. Then, the performance in terms of queuing delay, throughput and packet loss rate are derived. We provide closed-form expressions for the delay and throughput of two-hop unbalanced bidirectional traffic cases both with and without network coding. We consider the buffers on nodes are unsaturated. The analytical results are mainly derived by solving queuing systems for the buffer behavior at the relay node. To overcome the hidden node problem in multi hop wireless networks, we develop a useful mathematical model. Both models have been evaluated through simulations and simulation results show good agreement with the analytical results.     

Performance analysis of multiple-antenna cooperative networks under Weibull fading

In wireless communications, cooperative relaying is well-known to enhance the overall system performance, but implementation and cost constraints stand against its wide deployment. This paper investigates the performance of cooperative relays with and without multiple antennas under independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) Weibull faded channels in a two-hop wireless network. We consider the Weibull fading channel model due to its flexibility in describing the radio propagation environment more than the classical Rayleigh model. Our study relies on applying selection combining (SC) along with threshold decode and forward (TDF) protocol at the cooperative relays as a good compromise between cost and performance. In addition, maximal ratio combining (MRC) is used at the destination. We derive analytical expressions for the end-to-end (E2E) error performance of the network under such scenario and provide simulation results to confirm the validity of the obtained analytical expressions.     

Effect of Network Coding and Multi-packet Reception on Point-to-Multi-point Broadcast Networks

This paper addresses throughput and delay gains resulting from network coding (NC) used to complement multi-packet reception (MPR) in a single-relay multi-user wireless network in saturated and non-saturated traffic conditions. The cross-layer analytical framework is presented in analyzing the performance of the encode-and-forward (EF) relaying wireless networks, where employed at the physical layer under the conditions of unsaturated traffic and finite-length queue at the data link layer. Considering the characteristics of EF relaying protocol at the physical layer, first a model of a two-hop EF relaying wireless channel is proposed as an equivalent extended multi-dimensional Markovian state transition model in queuing analysis. We show that the initial transmissions and the back-filling process can be greatly sped up through a combination of NC and MPR. We provided closed-form expressions for two-hop unbalanced bidirectional traffic cases both with and without NC even if the buffers on nodes are unsaturated. The analytical results are mainly derived by solving queuing systems for the buffer behavior at the relay node. The model has been evaluated through simulations and in comparison with the existing analytical model. Simulation results show good agreement with the analytical results.     

WAP网关实现研究

无线应用协议（Ｗｉｒｅｌｅｓｓ Ａｐｐｌｉｃａｔｉｏｎ Ｐｒｏｔｏｃｏｌ,ＷＡＰ０产品的开发与部署将基于因特网的网络应用技术与无线数据网络通信技术进行有效地结合,是当前产业界和研究界所共同关心的热点问题。文中就ＷＡＰ应用的核心技术之一－ＷＡＰ网关的实现与性能测试问题进行研究,讨论了我们所研发的一种基于ＵＮＩＸ平台和多线程技术的ＷＡＰ网关实现方法,分析了具体实现中的关键技术,并就ＷＡＰ网关实现的性能改进与测试工作进行分析和讨论,大量测试的结果表明,采用上述技术所研发的ＷＡＰ网关具有高的可靠性和运行性能。     

Efficient Utilization of Available Channels in Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks

In case of dynamic spectrum access networks, how to efficiently utilize the dynamically available bandwidth is very important to enhance the performance of the networks. In this paper, we propose an Error Adaptive MAC protocol which adaptively changes its transmission mode according to the channel status. Using the cognitive radio technology, additional channels are assumed to be randomly available for data transmission. When the channel error rate is relatively high, those additional channels are utilized for error recovery; otherwise, the extra channels can be used to increase the throughput if the wireless medium is stable and reliable. We formulate an analytical model to study the dynamics of our adaptive MAC protocol, and using simulation, show our proposed method can significantly enhance the throughput of dynamic spectrum access networks.     

A comprehensive DCF performance analysis in noisy industrial wireless networks

The use of wireless technology in industrial networks is becoming more popular because of its flexibility, reduction of cable cost, and deployment time. Providing an accurate model to study the most important parameters of these networks, the timeliness and reliability, is essential in assessing the network metrics and choosing proper protocol settings. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 is a common and established wireless technology, and several analytical models have been proposed to assess its performance; however, most of them are accurate only for a limited network situation, especially data networks that have large packet payloads and are used at high signal to noise ratios, and cannot be applied to study the performance of industrial networks that have short packet lengths and are used in harsh and noisy environments. In this paper, a novel three‐dimensional discrete‐time Markov chain model has been proposed for the IEEE 802.11‐based industrial wireless networks using the distributed coordination function as the medium access control mechanism in the worst‐case saturated traffic. It considers both causes of the backoff freezing: busy channel and the successive interframe space waiting time. In this way, it provides a much more accurate estimation of the channel access and error probabilities, resulting in a more accurate network parameter calculation. Also, based on the proposed model, a comprehensive packet delay analysis, including average, jitter, and cumulative distribution function, has been provided for the near 100% reliable industrial scenario and error‐prone channel condition, which in comparison with similar pieces of work provides much more accurate results. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

IEEE 802.11-saturation throughput analysis

To satisfy the emerging need of wireless data communications, the IEEE is currently standardizing the 802.11 protocol for wireless local area networks. This standard adopts a CSMA/CA medium access control protocol with exponential backoff. We present a simple analytical model to compute the saturation throughput performance in the presence of a finite number of terminals and in the assumption of ideal channel conditions. The model applies to both basic and request-to-send/clear-to-send (RTS/CTS) access mechanisms. Comparison with simulation results shows that the model is extremely accurate in predicting the system throughput     

Preamble sampling MAC protocols with persistent receivers in wireless sensor networks

We provide an analytical framework for preamble sampling techniques for MAC protocols in wireless sensor networks, from which we derive closed-form formulas for lifetime and reliability calculations. In addition to take into account transmitter behavior that controls the form and the content of the transmitted preamble, our model also considers receiver behavior that controls the duration of preamble reception in case of successful and failed reception. Along with both transmitter and receiver behavior, our model considers a non-perfect channel and thus takes into account the impacts of transmission errors and retransmissions on lifetime and reliability of preamble sampling protocols. Numerical results show that no protocol is universally optimal; that is, each protocol has its own optimal operation point that depends on the given channel and load conditions.     

支持移动多媒体通信中间件的WAP网关

WAP协议是WAP论坛提出的一个开放通信协议;WAP网关进行协议的转换,是移动终端无线接入Internet的枢纽。在简要介绍了无线应用协议后,提出了一个在Linux操作系统平台下运行的WAP网关(数据通信网关)的设计与实现方案,该WAP网关由承载层模块、WAP模块和SMS模块组成,其中详细介绍承载层模块和WAP模块的工作原理,并在实验室环境下对网关进行测试,给出了测试结果。     

Throughput analysis of TCP on channels with memory

The focus of this paper is to analyze the relative sensitivity of the bulk throughput performance of different versions of TCP, viz., OldTahoe, Tahoe, Reno, and New Reno, to channel errors that are correlated. We investigate the performance of a single wireless TCP connection in a local environment by modeling the correlated packet loss/error process (e.g., as induced by a multipath fading channel) as a first-order Markov chain. A major contribution of the paper is a unified analytical approach which allows the evaluation of the throughput performance of various versions of TCP. The main findings of this study are that 1) error correlations significantly affect the performance of TCP, and in particular may result in considerably better performance for Tahoe and NewReno; and 2) over slowly fading channels which are characterized by significant channel memory, Tahoe performs as well as NewReno. This leads us to conclude that a clever design of the lower layers that preserve error correlations, naturally present on wireless links because of the fading behavior, could be an attractive alternative to the development or the use of more complex versions of TCP     

Comprehensive performance analysis of a TCP session over a wireless fading link with queueing

A link model-driven approach toward transmission control protocol (TCP) performance over a wireless link is presented. TCP packet loss behavior is derived from an underlying two-state continuous time Markov model. The approach presented here is (to our knowledge) the first that simultaneously considers (1) variability of the round-trip delay due to buffer queueing; (2) independent and nonindependent (bursty) link errors; (3) TCP packet loss due to both buffer overflow and channel errors; and (4) the two modes of TCP packet loss detection (duplicate acknowledgments and timeouts). The analytical results are validated against simulations using the ns-2 simulator for a wide range of parameters; slow and fast fading links; small and large link bandwidth-delay products. For channels with memory, an empirical rule is presented for categorizing the impact of channel dynamics (fading rate) on TCP performance.     

End-to-End Performance Improvement of the Wireless Channel for Video Transmission

Real time video transmission in wireless environment considers various parameters of wireless channel like information rate, error resiliency, security, end-to-end latency, quality of service etc. The available internet protocols are transmission control protocol and user datagram protocol (UDP). But most of the real-time applications uses UDP as their transport protocol. UDP is a fast protocol suitable for delay sensitive applications like video and audio transmission as it does not provide flow control or error recovery and does not require connection management. Due to the tremendous growth in wired and wireless real-time applications, some improvements should be made in the existing systems or protocols. Various techniques to improve end-to-end performance of system for real time video transmission over wireless channel are available in literature. Authors claim that the solution suggested in the paper provide more reliability in wireless video transmission. In the proposed solution, adaptive redundant packets are added in every block (or datagram) transmitted in order to achieve a desired recovery rate at the receiver. The suggested method dose not use any retransmission mechanism. The network simulator NS-2 is used to evaluate the method and the simulation results indicate that the proposed method can guarantee satisfied end-to-end performance by increased packet delivery ratio, reduced end-to-end delay and hence increased network throughput for video transmission in wireless network.