Two dimensional cross-layer optimization for packet transmission over fading channel

In this paper a single-input-single-output wireless data transmission system with adaptive modulation and coding over correlated fading channel is considered, where run-time power adjustment is not available. Higher layer data packets are enqueued into a finite size buffer space before being released into the time-varying wireless channel. Without fixing the physical layer error probability, the objective is to minimize the average joint packet loss rate due to both erroneous transmission and buffer overflow. Two optimization techniques are incorporated to achieve the best solution. The first is policy domain optimization that formulates the data rate adaptation design as classical Markov decision problem. The second is channel domain optimization that appropriately partitions the channel variation based on particular fading environment and carried traffic pattern. The derived policy domain analytical model can precisely map any policy design into various QoS performance metrics with finite buffer setup. We then propose a tractable suboptimization framework to produce different two-dimensional suboptimal solutions with scalable complexity-optimality tradeoff for practical implementations.     

Link adaptation for wireless systems

To improve the robustness and reliability of wireless transmissions, two complementary link adaptation techniques are employed: adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) at the physical layer and hybrid automatic retransmission request (HARQ) at the medium access control layer. Because of their effectiveness in combating errors induced by the wireless channel, AMC and HARQ are now integral components of most emerging broadband wireless system standards, for example, LTE and WiMAX. Spectral efficiency (SE) as measured in bit per second per Hertz is one important parameter used to characterize a wireless system for comparison between different systems or between different configurations of the same system. This work provides a holistic approach of cross‐layer optimizations with the intent of maximizing SE by combining AMC and HARQ. It formulates closed‐form equations for calculating the average SE for wireless systems with the Rayleigh fading channel model. A new online algorithm is developed to optimize SE for both Rayleigh and non‐Rayleigh fading channel. Simulations using proven LTE model are performed to compare SE obtained from closed‐form equations and the developed algorithm for different system configurations. With the developed algorithm to determine how many retransmissions required in addition to the initial transmission in advance depending on the current wireless channel condition, the latency can be reduced up to 24 ms when sending the initial transmission and all of its retransmissions sooner than waiting for retransmission requests as is done previously. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Power Efficient Video Multipath Transmission over Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks

This paper proposes a power efficient multipath video packet scheduling scheme for minimum video distortion transmission (optimised Video QoS) over wireless multimedia sensor networks. The transmission of video packets over multiple paths in a wireless sensor network improves the aggregate data rate of the network and minimizes the traffic load handled by each node. However, due to the lossy behavior of the wireless channel the aggregate transmission rate cannot always support the requested video source data rate. In such cases a packet scheduling algorithm is applied that can selectively drop combinations of video packets prior to transmission to adapt the source requirements to the channel capacity. The scheduling algorithm selects the less important video packets to drop using a recursive distortion prediction model. This model predicts accurately the resulting video distortion in case of isolated errors, burst of errors and errors separated by a lag. Two scheduling algorithms are proposed in this paper. The Baseline scheme is a simplified scheduler that can only decide upon which packet can be dropped prior to transmission based on the packet’s impact on the video distortion. This algorithm is compared against the Power aware packet scheduling that is an extension of the Baseline capable of estimating the power that will be consumed by each node in every available path depending on its traffic load, during the transmission. The proposed Power aware packet scheduling is able to identify the available paths connecting the video source to the receiver and schedule the packet transmission among the selected paths according to the perceived video QoS (Peak Signal to Noise Ratio—PSNR) and the energy efficiency of the participating wireless video sensor nodes, by dropping packets if necessary based on the distortion prediction model. The simulation results indicate that the proposed Power aware video packet scheduling can achieve energy efficiency in the wireless multimedia sensor network by minimizing the power dissipation across all nodes, while the perceived video quality is kept to very high levels even at extreme network conditions (many sensor nodes dropped due to power consumption and high background noise in the channel).     

Decentralized multiuser diversity with opportunistic packet transmission in MIMO wireless sensor networks

In this study, we consider a single-hop wireless sensor network where both the sensor nodes and the controller node have multiple antennas. We focus on single beam opportunistic communication and propose a threshold-based medium access control (MAC) scheme for uplink packet transmission which exploits multiuser diversity gain without feedback in a decentralized manner. Packet transfer from sensor nodes to the controller node is initiated when the channel quality of any node exceeds the predefined threshold based on the effective signal-to-noise ratio (ESNR) measurements at the sensor nodes through linear combining techniques. The optimum threshold is determined to maximize the probability of successful packet transmission where only one sensor node transmits its packet in one time-slot. The proposed scheme trades the successful packet rate to increase the SNR of the successful packets assuming Rayleigh fading and collision-based reception model. Computer simulations confirm that proposed scheme has higher successful packet SNR compared to the simple time division multiple access (TDMA)-based MAC scheme with round-robin fashion. The use of multiple antennas at the sensor nodes can also improve the throughput of proposed scheme compared with our previous scheme without implementing the spatial diversity at the SNs.     

Cross‐layer design for MIMO systems over spatially correlated and keyhole Nakagami‐m fading channels

Cross‐layer design is a generic designation for a set of efficient adaptive transmission schemes, across multiple layers of the protocol stack, that are aimed at enhancing the spectral efficiency and increasing the transmission reliability of wireless communication systems. In this paper, one such cross‐layer design scheme that combines physical layer adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) with link layer truncated automatic repeat request (T‐ARQ) is proposed for multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) systems employing orthogonal space‐‐time block coding (OSTBC). The performance of the proposed cross‐layer design is evaluated in terms of achievable average spectral efficiency (ASE), average packet loss rate (PLR) and outage probability, for which analytical expressions are derived, considering transmission over two types of MIMO fading channels, namely, spatially correlated Nakagami‐m fading channels and keyhole Nakagami‐m fading channels. Furthermore, the effects of the maximum number of ARQ retransmissions, numbers of transmit and receive antennas, Nakagami fading parameter and spatial correlation parameters, are studied and discussed based on numerical results and comparisons. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On stochastic learning in predictive wireless ARQ

Traditional automatic repeat request (ARQ) protocols are channel unaware. That is, they react to channel errors by simply retransmitting erroneous packets and do not proactively decide whether or not to transmit a packet in a given slot based on past channel conditions. Clearly, ARQ protocols operating in this mode are not energy efficient. For example, continuously retransmitting erroneous packets when the wireless channel is in deep fade would cause significant wastage of transmission energy. In this paper, we present a stochastic learning automaton‐based wireless channel state aware ARQ protocol. The learning automaton learns to predict and track the time‐varying wireless channel conditions based on past observations. A Markov chain model for the channel state transitions is used. No a priori knowledge about the state transition probabilities is required by this predictor. Stochastic convergence of the learning algorithm is proved. The proposed ARQ protocol utilizes the predictions to compute transmission/retransmission policies in an online fashion. No pilot (training) symbols are used by the protocol for channel state prediction thereby avoiding any energy wastage due to the transmission of these symbols. Simulation results show that depending on the channel memory significant energy savings can be attained when compared with standard ARQ protocols. We also discuss the transmission energy versus delay trade‐off. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

自适应调制编码的VBLAST系统研究

在高速下行分组接入（HSDPA）中,采用自适应调制编码（AMC）技术能提高下行信道传输数据的能力。仿真信道编码采用Turbo码,将自适应调制编码技术应用于VBLAST系统以进一步提高系统性能和容量。因此系统能选择调制编码方式和信道编码方式,又能对抗衰落引起的突发错误。对该系统进行仿真表明：自适应调制编码的VBLAST系统能有效地提高数据传输效率和传输质量。     

An end‐to‐end channel allocation scheme for a wireless mesh network

Co‐channel interference seriously influences the throughput of a wireless mesh network. This study proposes an end‐to‐end channel allocation scheme (EECAS) that extends the radio‐frequency‐slot method to minimize co‐channel interference. The EECAS first separates the transmission and reception of packets into two channels. This scheme can then classify the state of each radio‐frequency‐slot as transmitting, receiving, interfered, free, or parity. A node that initiates a communication session with a quality of service requirement can propagate a channel allocation request along the communication path to the destination. By checking the channel state, the EECAS can determine feasible radio‐frequency‐slot allocations for the end‐to‐end path. The simulation results in this study demonstrate that the proposed approach performs well in intra‐mesh and inter‐mesh communications, and it outperforms previous channel allocation schemes in end‐to‐end throughput. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

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.     

PSNR Enhancement in Image Streaming over Cognitive Radio Sensor Networks

Several studies have focused on multimedia transmission over wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In this paper, we propose a comprehensive and robust model to transmit images over cognitive radio WSNs (CRWSNs). We estimate the spectrum sensing frequency and evaluate its impact on the peak signal‐to‐noise ratio (PSNR). To enhance the PSNR, we attempt to maximize the number of pixels delivered to the receiver. To increase the probability of successful image transmission within the maximum allowed time, we minimize the average number of packets remaining in the send buffer. We use both single‐ and multi‐channel transmissions by focusing on critical transmission events, namely hand‐off (HO), No‐HO, and timeout events. We deploy our advanced updating method, the dynamic parameter updating procedure, to guarantee the dynamic adaptation of model parameters to the events. In addition, we introduce our ranking method, named minimum remaining packet best channel selection, to enable us to rank and select the best channel to improve the system performance. Finally, we show the capability of our proposed image scrambling and filtering approach to achieve noticeable PSNR improvement.     

BER-based Power Scheduling in Wireless Sensor Networks

In wireless sensor networks, there are many information exchanges between different terminals. In order to guarantee a good level of Quality of Service (QoS), the source node should be smart enough to pick a stable and good quality communication route in order to avoid any unnecessary packet loss. Due to the error-prone links in a wireless network, it is very likely that the transmitted packets over consecutive links may get corrupted or even lost. It is known that retransmissions will increase the overhead in the network, which in turns increase the total energy consumption during data transmission. In this paper, we focus on the Bit Error Rate (BER) during packet transmission and propose a power scheduling scheme to reduce the total energy consumption in the routing. Our approach controls the transmission power of each transmitter to achieve the minimum energy consumption for successful packet transmission. Considering the limited bandwidth resource, we also plan the multihop route while considering the BER and network load at the same time. The simulation results show that our approach can reduce the total energy consumption during data transmission.     

Modeling End-to-End Wireless Lossy Channels: A Finite-State Markov Approach

In this paper, we present a model for wireless losses in packet transmission data networks. The model provides information about the wireless channel status that can be used in congestion control schemes. A Finite State Markov Channel (FSMC) approach is implemented to model the wireless slow fading for different modulation schemes. The arrival process statistics of the packet traces determine the channel state transition probabilities, where the statistics of both error-free and erroneous bursts are captured. Later, we establish SNR partitioning scheme that uses the transition probabilities as a basis for the state margins. The crossover probability associated with each state is calculated accordingly. We also propose an end-to-end approach to loss discrimination based on the channel state estimation at the receiver. Finally, we present a scheme for finding the channel optimal number of states as a function of the SNR. The presented FSMC approach does not restrict the state transitions to the adjacent states, nor does impose constant state duration as compared to some literature studies. We validate our model by experimental packet traces. Our simulation results show the feasibility of building a fading channel model for better wireless-loss awareness.     

Queue length aware power control for delay‐ constrained communication over fading channels

In this paper, we study efficient power control schemes for delay sensitive communication over fading channels. Our objective is to find a power control law that optimizes the link layer performance, specifically, minimizes the packet drop probability, subject to a long‐term average power constraint. We assume the buffer at the transmitter is finite; hence packet drop happens when the buffer is full. The fading channel under our study has a continuous state, e.g., Rayleigh fading. Since the channel state space is continuous, dynamic programming is not applicable for power control. In this paper, we propose a sub‐optimal power control law based on a parametric approach. The proposed power control scheme tries to minimize the packet drop probability by considering the queue length, i.e., reducing the probability of those queue‐length states that will cause full buffer. Simulation results show that our proposed power control scheme reduces the packet drop probability by one or two orders of magnitude, compared to the time domain water filling (TDWF) and the truncated channel inversion (TCI) power control. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cross-Layer Rate and Power Adaptation Strategies for IR-HARQ Systems over Fading Channels with Memory: A SMDP-Based Approach

Incremental-redundancy hybrid automatic repeatrequest (IR-HARQ) schemes are proposed in several wireless standards for increased throughput-efficiency and greater reliability. We investigate transmit power and modulation order adaptation strategies for the IR-HARQ schemes over correlated Rayleigh fading channels using semi-Markov decision processbased model. In order to jointly analyze physical layer and link layer, transmitter model incorporates a finite-size buffer that receives randomly varying traffic from a higher layer application. It is assumed that channel variations can be modeled with a firstorder Markov chain. We show that the optimal transmission power and rate adaptation laws under buffering delay and packet overflow constraints can be obtained using the framework of semi-Markov decision process. We discuss three different adaptation models for the IR-HARQ schemes and compare their performances with the non-adaptive scheme. It is shown that unique optimal policy exists for each case and it can be computed using linear programming approach. This optimal policy is then applied for realistic channel fading and incoming traffic samples to evaluate its performance for both hard-decision and softdecision decoding. Simulation results in general point out that substantial power savings can be achieved using adaptation and also if the transmission-delay requirements are relaxed.     

Cross‐layer bandwidth and power allocation for a two‐hop link in wireless mesh network

In this paper, a cross‐layer analytical framework is proposed to analyze the throughput and packet delay of a two‐hop wireless link in wireless mesh network (WMN). It considers the adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) process in physical layer and the traffic queuing process in upper layers, taking into account the traffic distribution changes at the output node of each link due to the AMC process therein. Firstly, we model the wireless fading channel and the corresponding AMC process as a finite state Markov chain (FSMC) serving system. Then, a method is proposed to calculate the steady‐state output traffic of each node. Based on this, we derive a modified queuing FSMC model for the relay to gateway link, which consists of a relayed non‐Poisson traffic and an originated Poisson traffic, thus to evaluate the throughput at the mesh gateway. This analytical framework is verified by numerical simulations, and is easy to extend to multi‐hop links. Furthermore, based on the above proposed cross‐layer framework, we consider the problem of optimal power and bandwidth allocation for QoS‐guaranteed services in a two‐hop wireless link, where the total power and bandwidth resources are both sum‐constrained. Secondly, the practical optimal power allocation algorithm and optimal bandwidth allocation algorithm are presented separately. Then, the problem of joint power and bandwidth allocation is analyzed and an iterative algorithm is proposed to solve the problem in a simple way. Finally, numerical simulations are given to evaluate their performances. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Error control coding in wireless sensor networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are usually a set of battery-supplied small devices. One of the main challenges in deploying WSN is to improve energy-efficiency and lifetime of the nodes while keeping communication reliability. Transmissions over the wireless channel may experience many impairments, like random noise and fading, increasing the bit error rate at reception, causing several retransmissions, and consuming extra energy from the node. In order to minimize the harmful effects of the radio channel, error control strategies using packet retransmission and error correcting codes are commonly utilized. In this work we investigate the trade-off between transmission and processing energy consumption in a sensor node employing convolutional codes. Through this study we can identify and select the appropriate complexity of the error control code to be used in each sensor node, in order to maximize the network lifetime.     

On the Energy Efficiency of WSN Communications Operating Under Non-coherent M-FSK and M-QAM Modulations

To make Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) market growth a reality, we need to empower the network designers with a provision to optimally tailor the physical layer parameters. In this paper, we present a holistic analysis of energy related aspects of WSN communications operating under Rayleigh fading, using standardized WSN specifications. The rational expressions have been derived by taking into consideration the effects of packet size, repeated training sequences, transmission distance, path-loss, amplifier efficiency, bandwidth of the channel and active mode span for Non-coherent M-ary FSK (NC-MFSK) and M-QAM modulation schemes. The results of variation of total energy consumption along with various parameters like path-loss, amplifier efficiency, hop distance and packet size have been investigated. We found that for small transmission distances, M-QAM modulation performs better than NC-MFSK scheme, but as the distance increases the NC-MFSK outperforms the M-QAM in the terms of energy efficiency. Moreover, for communications operating with NC-MFSK modulation, the crossover point of better energy efficiency is achieved at lesser distance with increase in value of path-loss parameter. These results may enable the network designers to plan energy-efficient WSN communication architectures even in the presence of constrained environments.