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.     

On the impact of link layer retransmission schemes on TCP over 4G satellite links

We study the impact of reliability mechanisms introduced at the link layer on the performance of transport protocols in the context of 4G satellite links. Specifically, we design a software module that performs realistic analysis of the network performance, by utilizing real physical layer traces of a 4G satellite service. Based on these traces, our software module produces equivalent link layer traces, as a function of the chosen link layer reliability mechanism. We further utilize the link layer traces within the ns‐2 network simulator to evaluate the impact of link layer schemes on the performance of selected Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) variants. We consider erasure coding, selective‐repeat automatic request (ARQ) and hybrid‐ARQ link layer mechanisms, and TCP Cubic, Compound, Hybla, New Reno and Westwood. We show that, for all target TCP variants, when the throughput of the transport protocol is close to the channel capacity, using the ARQ mechanism is most beneficial for TCP performance improvement. In conditions where the physical channel error rate is high, hybrid‐ARQ results in the best performance for all TCP variants considered, with up to 22% improvements compared to other schemes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A recommended error control architecture for ATM networks withwireless links

This paper provides performance results through analysis and simulation for key error control problems encountered in using wireless links to transport asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) cells. Problems considered include the forward-error correction (FEC) and interleaving at the physical layer, the impact of wireless links on the ATM cell header-error control (HEC) sand cell delineation (CD) functions, the application of data link automatic repeat-request (ARQ) for traffic requiring reliable transport, and the impact of the choice of end-to-end ARQ protocol for reliable service. We conclude that it is very important to make the physical layer as SONET-like as possible through the use of powerful FEC, interleaving, and ARQ. These additional error control measures are especially necessary for disturbed channels because of the degrading effects of the channel on higher-layer functions. A recommended error control architecture is given with tradeoffs     

Efficiency of error-control schemes for real-time wireless applications on the Gilbert channel

The design of a bandwidth-efficient physical layer for wireless access has always been a challenging task, due to the harsh environment, characterized by impairing phenomena such as radio interference, fading, and shadowing. With circuit switching, a bit-error rate suitable for real-time applications such as voice and video is guaranteed by adopting robust forward error correction (FEC) codes and proper power-budget margins to face fading problems. With this approach, automatic repeat request (ARQ) is used only for applications that require a much lower error rate and can tolerate high delays. The introduction of the packet technique allows the use of ARQ even for real-time traffic. We compare the efficiency of three error-recovering techniques in the presence of traffic with delay constraints, when the memory property of the wireless segment is represented by the Gilbert-Elliot channel. The techniques compared are FEC with interleaving, real-time ARQ, and erasure coding (EC). The comparisons are performed by using both analytical and simulation tools. Two new analytical models are introduced to evaluate the performance of FEC and EC. Simulation is used to validate the analytical results and to derive the performance of real-time ARQ. The numerical results show that when the channel memory increases well beyond the packet-transmission time, the performance of FEC impairs due to the limited interleaving depth, while ARQ and EC remain effective.     

Performance of Hybrid Error Control Schemes of Satellite Channels

The effectiveness of hybrid error control schemes involving forward error correction (FEC) and automatic repeat request (ARQ) is examined for satellite channels. The principal features of the channel are: large round-trip transmission delay due to the satellite link, and burst errors introduced by the terrestrial links that connect the users to the satellite link. The performance is estimated for two channels described by Fritchman's simple partitioned finite-state Markov model, and is compared to that obtainable if the channel is considered as a binary symmetric channel of the same bit error probability. Results show that the hybrid schemes offer substantial improvement over ARQ and FEC, and that an optimum exists for the number of errors corrected to obtain maximum throughput efficiency.     

Evaluation of a Split-Connection Mobile Transport Protocol

A performance evaluation is presented for a split-connection protocol for wireless Internet access which is denoted Split-Connection Mobile Tranport Protocol (SCMTP). It uses the general approach of the previously introduced Mobile End Transport Protocol (METP) but with differences that include a wireless-link channel-access protocol better matched with current cellular networks and more general ARQ methods for error control in the wireless link. In common with METP, SCMTP uses a standard TCP protocol on the wire-line connection and isolates the data flow in the wire-line network from the effect of wireless packet errors.Performance is considered for the important case of a single SCMTP split connection between a fixed host and a mobile host with heavy downlink traffic from the fixed host to the mobile host. It is shown for these conditions that if the wire-line packet-error rate is small, a steady state is reached in which the connection's data flow in the wire-line network remains under the control of the receiver-advertised window of the TCP entity at the base station. Performance is evaluated for the steady-state operation of the SCMTP protocol, and relationships are established between the key properties of the split connection and the end-to-end performance of the connection.It is shown that for heavy downlink traffic, the delay in the wire-line part of the connection does not affect steady-state throughput if the receiver buffer is sized appropriately. It is also shown that use of the go-back-N ARQ protocol on the wireless link yields better performance than the stop-and-wait ARQ protocol, although the performance with go-back-N ARQ is more sensitive to the characteristics of the wireless channel. It is shown that under a broad range of conditions, SCMTP with go-back-N ARQ provides nearly optimal utilization of the capacity of the wireless link.     

A novel adaptive hybrid ARQ scheme for wireless ATM networks

This paper describes the design and performance of a novel adaptive hybrid ARQ scheme using concatenated FEC codes for error control over wireless ATM networks. The wireless links are characterized by higher, time‐varying error rates and burstier error patterns in comparison with the fiber‐based links for which ATM was designed. The purpose of the hybrid ARQ scheme is to provide a capability to dynamically support reliable ATM‐based transport over wireless channels by using a combination of our ARQ scheme (called SDLP) and the concatenated FEC scheme. The key ideas in the proposed hybrid ARQ scheme are to adapt the code rate to the channel conditions using incremental redundancy and to increase the starting code rate as much as possible with the concatenated FEC, maximizing the throughput efficiency. The numerical results show that our proposed scheme outperforms other ARQ schemes for all SNR values. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

无线视频的一种码率控制方法

无线信道的高误码率对视频图像质量有很大的影响,前向纠错(FEC)和自动重发请求(ARQ)对于降低无线信道的误码率,提高图像质量有很好的效果。通过对FEC和ARQ方法的有效性分析,在TMN8的基础上提出一种简单的混合FEC/ARQ自适应模式选择码率控制方法。该方法首先预测报文丢失数量和纠错报文传输时延,从而选择合适的纠错编码模式,并为纠错编码分配比特数。实验结果表明该方法有效降低无线信道下报文丢失率,显著提高了图像质量。     

WLAN中TCP性能改进的跨层方案仿真

随着无线网络的迅速发展,如何改进TCP在无线网络中的传输性能这一课题,已经成为国内外研究的热点.文章分析了现有的几种典型的TCP改进方案,并在此基础上介绍一种新的跨层方案.通过在传输层和链路层之间引入ARQ Snoop代理,在链路层检测并重传ARQ分组的同时,协调WLAN MAC子层的ARQ机制与TCP的ARQ策略.     

Steady-State analysis of a split-connection scheme for Internet access through a wireless terminal

TCP does not perform well in a connection that includes a lossy wireless link. Techniques intended to improve the performance of TCP for such connections can be grouped into three categories: end-to-end, link layer and split-connection approaches. Some simulations and experimental results indicate that split-connection protocols yield better performance than the other two approaches. Although analytical modeling of the end-to-end and link-layer approaches has been presented, no comparable performance analysis for split-connection protocols has been reported previously. In this paper, a stochastic model is developed and used to analyze the performance of a class of split-connection protocols which deploy TCP on the wire-line network and a light-weight transport protocol on the wireless final hop. The final hop is provided by a digital TDMA cellular system. The condition of heavy source traffic to the wireless terminal is considered. The model relates the throughput and some useful auxiliary performance measures to key system parameters such as propagation delays, the base-station buffer size, the ARQ protocol and channel-error process of the wireless link. The usefulness of the analysis is illustrated by its application to the problem of sizing the TCP receiving buffer in a base station.     

Data transmission efficiency over CDMA systems employing RLP and FEC error control strategies on the radio link layer

In this article, the normalized throughput and the normalized average delay for the transport layer at the reverse link of multicellular CDMA systems are obtained. For the transport layer the Transport Control Protocol (TCP) with consecutive retransmissions control is employed. On the radio link layer three TCP error control strategies are evaluated and compared. The first strategy is based on the radio-link-protocol (RLP), which breaks down the TCP packets into smaller blocks and uses an error detecting procedure to protect those RLP blocks. The second strategy uses forward-error-control (FEC) procedure at the radio link layer. In this case, two kinds of FEC are compared: convolutional and turbo coding. The third one is a hybrid between the first and second strategies with coding at the RLP layer. A frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channel with shadowing and power control loop error is considered.     

针对混合应用业务的ARQ改进方案

在高速无线通信中,自动请求重传(ARQ)是链路层不可缺少的技术,它通过重传向上层屏蔽无线链路上包的丢失。随着无线网络的发展,无线传输速率不断提高,应用的业务类型也越来越广泛。目前,众多ARQ技术的研究都集中在如何提高该技术的确认效率,以适应更高的传输速率,但鲜有研究着手于如何使ARQ能够更好地应用于混合业务环境。针对混合业务环境下的ARQ改进提出了2种方案,并给出其中1种在实际应用中的改善效果。     

Parity-based loss recovery for reliable multicast transmission

We investigate how forward error correction (FEC) can be combined with automatic repeat request (ARQ) to achieve scalable reliable multicast transmission. We consider the two scenarios where FEC is introduced as a transparent layer underneath a reliable multicast layer that uses ARQ, and where FEC and ARQ are both integrated into a single layer that uses the retransmission of parity data to recover from the loss of original data packets. To evaluate the performance improvements due to FEC, we consider different loss rates and different types of loss behavior (spatially or temporally correlated loss, homogeneous or heterogeneous loss) for up to 10⁶ receivers. Our results show that introducing FEC as a transparent layer below ARQ can improve multicast transmission efficiency and scalability. However, there are substantial additional improvements when FEC and ARQ are integrated     

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。      

适用于卫星网络的TCP跨层改进机制

该文提出基于跨层信息交互,将链路层ARQ重传状态信息通知TCP的机制,避免了链路层重传引起的时延变化对TCP的不利影响。该机制使用完全可靠选择性重传ARQ为TCP提供可靠的链路,避免卫星链路上发生丢包,并且不必要求链路层保证包按序递交,消除了重排序的等待时延,适合带宽时延积较大的卫星网络。仿真结果表明,能显著提高TCP在卫星网中的性能,特别是在误帧率较高条件下。     

Optimal TCP segment size for mobile server access over wireless links of cellular networks

Internet access from mobile phones over cellular networks suffers from severe bandwidth limitations and high bit error rates over wireless access links. Tailoring TCP connections to best fit the characteristics of this bottleneck link is thus very important for overall performance improvement. In this work, we propose a simple algorithm in deciding the optimal TCP segment size to maximize the utilization of the bottleneck wireless TCP connection for mobile contents server access, taking the dynamic TCP window variation into account. The proposed algorithm can be used when the product of the access rate of the wireless link and the propagation time to mobile contents servers is not large. With some numerical examples, it is shown that the optimal TCP segment size becomes a constant value when the TCP window size (WS) exceeds a threshold. One can set the maximum segment size (MSS) of a wireless TCP connection to this optimal segment size for mobile contents server access for maximum efficiency on the expensive wireless link. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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

In this paper, we propose an analytical cross‐layer model for a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection running over a covariance‐stationary wireless channel with a completely reliable Automatic Repeat reQuest scheme combined with Forward Error Correction (FEC) coding. Since backbone networks today are highly overprovisioned, we assume that the wireless channel is the only one bottleneck in the system which causes packets to be buffered at the wired/wireless interface and dropped as a result of buffer overflow. We develop the model in two steps. At the first step, we consider the service process of the wireless channel and derive the probability distribution of the time required to successfully transmit an IP packet over the wireless channel. This distribution is used at the next step of the modeling, where we derive expressions for the TCP long‐term steady‐state throughput, the mean round‐trip time, and the spurious timeout probability. The developed model allows to quantify the joint effect of many implementation‐specific parameters on the TCP performance over both correlated and non‐correlated wireless channels. We also demonstrate that TCP spurious timeouts, reported in some empirical studies, do not occur when wireless channel conditions are covariance‐stationary and their presence in those measurements should be attributed to non‐stationary behavior of the wireless channel characteristics. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Efficient resource allocation for China's 3G/4G wireless networks

The all-IP DiffServ model is expected to be the most promising architecture for QoS provisioning in China's next-generation wireless networks, due to its scalability, convenience for mobility support, and capability of interworking heterogeneous radio access networks. This article focuses on efficient resource allocation in a wireless DiffServ architecture. Resource utilization efficiency is particularly important for China's wireless networks as the mobile user density in China is and will continue to be much higher than that in other countries. More specifically, we propose a novel buffer sharing scheme to provide assured service for real-time layer-coded multimedia traffic, which can guarantee the specific packet loss requirement of each layer with UDP as the transport layer protocol. An adaptive optimal buffer configuration can be applied to achieve maximum resource utilization over the time-varying channel. Assured service is also provided to TCP data traffic for guaranteed throughput, where the cross-layer coupling between the TCP layer and link layer is exploited to efficiently utilize the wireless resources.     

Cooperative ARQ protocol for correlated wireless channels

A novel Automatic repeat ReQuest （ARQ） protocol called cooperative ARQ is presented in this letter, where a relay terminal is requested to retransmit an erroneously received packet, instead of the source terminal. The data link layer Packet Error Rate （PER） performance of cooperative ARQ is derived in correlated wireless channel. The results show that even though the relay-destination channel is worse than the sourcedestination channel, the new protocol outperforms the traditional one as long as the average SNR of the relaydestination channel is better than a certain threshold. It is also demonstrated that a second order diversity gain can be achieved with the cooperative ARQ protocol.     

Joint physical and link layer error control analysis for nanonetworks in the Terahertz band

Nanonetworks consist of nano-sized communicating devices which are able to perform simple tasks at the nanoscale. The limited capabilities of individual nanomachines and the Terahertz (THz) band channel behavior lead to error-prone wireless links. In this paper, a cross-layer analysis of error-control strategies for nanonetworks in the THz band is presented. A mathematical framework is developed and used to analyze the tradeoffs between Bit Error Rate, Packet Error Rate, energy consumption and latency, for five different error-control strategies, namely, Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ), Forward Error Correction (FEC), two types of Error Prevention Codes (EPC) and a hybrid EPC. The cross-layer effects between the physical and the link layers as well as the impact of the nanomachine capabilities in both layers are taken into account. At the physical layer, nanomachines are considered to communicate by following a time-spread on-off keying modulation based on the transmission of femtosecond-long pulses. At the link layer, nanomachines are considered to access the channel in an uncoordinated fashion, by leveraging the possibility to interleave pulse-based transmissions from different nodes. Throughout the analysis, accurate path loss, noise and multi-user interference models, validated by means of electromagnetic simulation, are utilized. In addition, the energy consumption and latency introduced by a hardware implementation of each error control technique, as well as, the additional constraints imposed by the use of energy-harvesting mechanisms to power the nanomachines, are taken into account. The results show that, despite their simplicity, EPCs outperform traditional ARQ and FEC schemes, in terms of error correcting capabilities, which results in further energy savings and reduced latency.