Provisioning of Parameterized Quality of Service in 802.11e Based Wireless Mesh Networks

There has been a growing interest in the use of wireless mesh networks. Today’s wireless technology enables very high data rate up to hundreds of Megabits per second, which creates the high demand of supporting real-time multimedia applications over wireless mesh networks. Hence it is imperative to support quality of service (QoS) in wireless mesh networks. In this paper, we design a framework to provide parameterized QoS in 802.11e based wireless mesh networks. Our framework consists of admission control algorithms and scheduling algorithms, which aim at supporting constant bit-rate (CBR) traffic flows, as well as variable bit-rate (VBR) traffic flows. We first present deterministic end-to-end delay bounds for CBR traffic. We then prove that the delay of VBR traffic can be bounded if the traffic flow conforms to a leaky-bucket regulator. We further study different admission control algorithms for VBR traffic. Our simulation results show that, by taking advantage of statistical multiplexing, much more traffic flows can be admitted.     

Supporting stored video: reducing rate variability and end-to-endresource requirements through optimal smoothing

Variable-bit-rate (VBR) compressed video can exhibit significant multiple-time-scale bit-rate variability. In this paper we consider the transmission of stored video from a server to a client across a network, and explore how the client buffer space can be used most effectively toward reducing the variability of the transmitted bit rate. Two basic results are presented. First, we show how to achieve the greatest possible reduction in rate variability when sending stored video to a client with given buffer size. We formally establish the optimality of our approach and illustrate its performance over a set of long MPEG-1 encoded video traces. Second, we evaluate the impact of optimal smoothing on the network resources needed for video transport, under two network service models: deterministic guaranteed service (Chang 1994; Wrege et al. 1996) and renegotiated constant-bit-rate (RCBR) service (Grossglauser et al. 1997). Under both models, the impact of optimal smoothing is dramatic     

A dynamic call admission scheme for VBR traffic in ATM networks

The role of call admission control (CAC) in high-speed networks is to maintain the network utilization at a high level, while ensuring that the quality of service (QoS) requirements of the individual calls are met. We use the term static CAC to describe schemes that always allocate the same bandwidth to a specific group of multiplexed calls, independent of the other traffic sharing the link. Dynamic CAC, on the other hand, denotes a scheme in which the bandwidth allocation to a group of calls sharing a queue is influenced by the traffic in other queues destined for the same outgoing link. We propose a generic dynamic call admission scheme for VBR and ABR traffic whose aim is to reduce the blocking rate for VBR calls at the expense of a higher blocking rate for ABR calls. Our scheme is generic because it builds up on a pre-existing static scheme, e.g., one based on a simple notion of effective bandwidth. Our simple approach results in a significant reduction of the blocking rate for VBR traffic (several orders of magnitude), if the bandwidth requirements of a single call are a reasonably small fraction of the link capacity. At the same time, the deterioration of service for ABR traffic can be contained. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A framework for guaranteeing statistical QoS

Continuous-media traffic (i.e., audio and video) can tolerate some loss but have rigid delay constraints. A natural QoS requirement for a continuous-media connection is a prescribed limit on the fraction of traffic that exceeds an end-to-end delay constraint. We propose and analyze a framework that provides such a statistical QoS guarantee to traffic in a packet-switched network. Providing statistical guarantees in a network is a notoriously difficult problem because traffic flows lose their original statistical characterizations at the outputs of queues. Our scheme uses bufferless statistical multiplexing combined with cascaded leaky buckets for smoothing and traffic contracting. This scheme along with a novel method for bounding the loss probability gives a tractable framework for providing end-to-end statistical QoS. Using MPEG video traces, we present numerical results that compare the connection-carrying capacity of our scheme with that of guaranteed service schemes (i.e., no loss) using GPS and RCS. Our numerical work indicates that our scheme can support significantly more connections without introducing significant traffic loss     

Fixed versus adaptive admission control in direct broadcast Satellite networks with return channel systems

In this paper, as part of the adaptive resource allocation and management (ARAM) system (Alagoz, 2001), we propose an adaptive admission control strategy, which is aimed at combating link congestion and compromised channel conditions inherent in multimedia satellite networks. We present the performance comparisons of a traditional (fixed) admission control strategy versus the new adaptive admission control strategy for a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) network with return channel system (DBS-RCS). Performance comparisons are done using the ARAM simulator. The traffic mix in the simulator includes both available bit rate (ABR) traffic and variable bit rate (VBR) traffic. The dynamic channel conditions in the simulator reflect time variant error rates due to external effects such as rain. In order to maximize the resource utilization, both for fixed and adaptive approaches, assignment of the VBR services are determined based on the estimated statistical multiplexing and other system attributes, namely, video source, data transmission, and channel coding rates. In this paper, we focus on the admission control algorithms and assess their impact on quality-of-service (QoS) and forward link utilization of DBS-RCS. We show that the proposed adaptive admission control strategy is profoundly superior to the traditional admission control strategy with only a marginal decrease in QoS. Since the ARAM system has several parameters and strategies that play key roles in terms of the performance measures, their sensitivity analysis are also studied to verify the above foundations.     

Simulation analysis of a communication link with statisticallymultiplexed bursty noise sources

Variable bit rate (VBR) coding techniques have received great research interest as very promising tools for transmitting bursty multimedia traffic with low bandwidth requirements over a communication link. Statistically multiplexing the multimedia bursty traffic is a very efficient method of maximizing the utilization of the link capacity. The application of computer simulation techniques in analyzing a rate-based access control scheme for multimedia traffic such as voice traffic is discussed. The control scheme regulates the packetized bursty traffic at the user network interface of the link. Using a suitable congestion measure, namely, the multiplexer buffer length, the scheme dynamically controls the arrival rate by switching the coder to a different compression ratio (i.e., changing the coding rate). VBR coding methods can be adaptively adjusted to transmit at a lower rate with very little degradation in the voice quality. Reported results prove that the scheme greatly improves the link performance, in terms of reducing the probability of call blocking and enhancing the statistical multiplexing gain     

Dynamic bandwidth allocation for interactive applications

The transmission of stored video across an ATM network is considered for interactive applications with bounded reaction times. The performance of the services renegotiated VBR (RVBR) and renegotiated CBR (RCBR) is investigated for this class of applications by trace-driven simulations. The goal is to determine the most efficient service for interactive applications. Here we present three basic results. First, for delay sensitive applications smoothing the video stream in advance is much more efficient than adding smoothing buffers to the network switches. Second, services with renegotiation (RCBR, RVBR) are better suited for interactive applications than the static services CBR and VBR. Third, the RVBR service with a deterministic call admission control scheme is the best choice for interactive applications that require small reaction times.     

Supporting multi-user real-time VBR video service using dynamic bandwidth management based on prediction

Real-time variable bit rate (VBR) video is expected to take a significant portion of multimedia applications. However, plentiful challenges to VBR video service provision have been raised for its characteristic of high traffic abruptness. To support multi-user real-time VBR video transmission with high bandwidth utilization and satisfied quality of service (QoS), this article proposes a practical dynamic bandwidth management scheme. This scheme forecasts future media rate of VBR video by employing time-domain adaptive linear predictor and using media delivery index (MDI) as both QoS measurement and complementary management reference. In addition, to support multi-user application, an adjustment priorities classified strategy is also put forward. Finally, a test-bed based on this management scheme is established. The experimental results demonstrate that the scheme proposed in this article is efficient with bandwidth utilization increased by 20%-60% compared to a fixed service rate and QoS guaranteed.     

Modelling VBR video over networks end-to-end using deterministic smoothing at the source

Video traffic is expected to become increasingly important with the large scale deployment of broadband ISDN. In the literature, it is suggested that smoothing variable bit rate (VBR) video traffic^1,2 before transmitting it onto the network would help reduce the probability of cell loss. In this paper we show why deterministic smoothing at the source approximates the minimum achievable loss over the network end-to-end of all possible smoothing schemes. Furthermore, we develop a powerful yet simple analytical technique that can efficiently calculate the loss probability at any point in a network carrying video traffic. We validate our analytical results using traces of actual video segments. The results can be used for admission control and traffic management. We find that in the case of highly correlated traffic such as motion JPEG video, the way to control loss is to ensure that the fraction of time the arrival process exceeds the service process is small. We also find that for such sources increasing the buffer size only marginally decreases the loss.     

Application of network calculus to guaranteed service networks

We use previous network calculus results to study some properties of lossless multiplexing as it may be used in guaranteed service networks. We call network calculus a set of results that apply min-plus algebra to packet networks. We provide a simple proof that shaping a traffic stream to conform to a burstiness constraint preserves the original constraints satisfied by the traffic stream. We show how all rate-based packet schedulers can be modeled with a simple rate latency service curve. Then we define a general form of deterministic effective bandwidth and equivalent capacity. We find that call acceptance regions based on deterministic criteria (loss or delay) are convex, in contrast to statistical cases where it is the complement of the region which is convex. We thus find that, in general, the limit of the call acceptance region based on statistical multiplexing when the loss probability target tends to 0 may be strictly larger than the call acceptance region based on lossless multiplexing. Finally, we consider the problem of determining the optimal parameters of a variable bit rate (VBR) connection when it is used as a trunk, or tunnel, given that the input traffic is known. We find that there is an optimal peak rate for the VBR trunk, essentially insensitive to the optimization criteria. For a linear cost function, we find an explicit algorithm for the optimal remaining parameters of the VBR trunk     

Maximizing the number of users in an interactive video-on-demand system

Video prefetching is a technique that has been proposed for the transmission of variable-bit-rate (VBR) videos over packet-switched networks. The objective of these protocols is to prefetch future frames at the customers' set-top box (STB) during light load periods. Experimental results have shown that video prefetching is very effective and it achieves much higher network utilization (and potentially larger number of simultaneous connections) than the traditional video smoothing schemes. The previously proposed prefetching algorithms, however, can only be efficiently implemented when there is one centralized server. In a distributed environment there is a large degradation in their performance. In this paper we introduce a new scheme that utilizes smoothing along with prefetching, to overcome the problem of distributed prefetching. We show that our scheme performs almost as well as the centralized prefetching protocol even though it is implemented in a distributed environment. In addition, we introduce a call admission control algorithm for a fully interactive video-on-demand (VoD) system that utilizes this concept of distributed video prefetching. Using the theory of effective bandwidths, we develop an admission control algorithm for new requests, based on the user's viewing behavior and the required quality of service (QoS).     

Multirate scheduling of VBR video traffic in ATM networks

One of the major attractions of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks for transporting bursty video traffic is its ability to exploit the multiplexing gains of packet switching while providing quality of service guarantees. Unfortunately, most of the multiplexing mechanisms proposed in the literature fail to exploit the multiplexing gains of ATM. We propose a multirate service mechanism that allows a session to be served at different rates at different times. Applications generating bursty data, such as variable bit-rate (VBR) video, can take advantage of multirate service by requesting a high rate of service for brief periods of bursty arrivals and a much lower rate of service for all other times. Consequently, the applications can improve their delay performance without reserving a high bandwidth for the entire duration of the sessions. Furthermore, the scheduler can multiplex the peaks and the lulls in service rates of different sessions and improve the utilization of the system. Using MPEG video traces from a number of applications, we show that multirate servers outperform single-rate PGPS (packet-by-packet generalized processor sharing) servers and CBR (constant bit-rate) servers in terms of number of connections admitted, while providing the same level of service guarantees. We also investigate the performance of multirate service when service quality need not be guaranteed. We refer to this as predictive service. We propose a measurement-based admission control procedure for predictive service, and show that it helps increase the size of the admissible region even further     

Admission control for statistical QoS: theory and practice

In networks that support quality of service, an admission control algorithm determines whether or not a new traffic flow can be admitted to the network such that all users will receive their required performance. Such an algorithm is a key component of future multiservice networks because it determines the extent to which network resources are utilized and whether the promised QoS parameters are actually delivered. The goals in this article are threefold. First, we describe and classify a broad set of proposed admission control algorithms. Second, we evaluate the accuracy of these algorithms via experiments using both on-off sources and long traces of compressed video; we compare the admissible regions and QoS parameters predicted by our implementations of the algorithms with those obtained from trace-driven simulations. Finally, we identify the key aspects of an admission control algorithm necessary for achieving a high degree of accuracy and hence a high statistical multiplexing gain     

Deterministic delay bounds for VBR video in packet-switchingnetworks: fundamental limits and practical trade-offs

Compressed digital video is one of the most important traffic types in future integrated services networks. However, a network service that supports delay-sensitive video imposes many problems since compressed video sources are variable bit rate (VBR) with a high degree of burstiness. In this paper, we consider a network service that can provide deterministic guarantees on the minimum throughput and the maximum delay of VBR video traffic. A common belief is that due to the burstiness of VBR traffic, such a service will not be efficient and will necessarily result in low network utilization. We investigate the fundamental limits and trade-offs in providing deterministic performance guarantees to video and use a set of 10 to 30 min. long MPEG-compressed video traces for evaluation. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we are able to show that, in many cases, a deterministic service can be provided to video traffic while maintaining a reasonable level of network utilization. We first consider an ideal network environment that employs the most accurate deterministic, time-invariant video traffic characterizations, the optimal earliest-deadline-first packet schedulers, and exact admission control conditions. The utilization achievable in this situation provides the fundamental limits of a deterministic service. We then investigate the utilization limits in a network environment that takes into account practical constraints, such as the need for simple and efficient policing mechanisms, packet scheduling algorithms, and admission control tests     

Design of a fair bandwidth allocation policy for VBR traffic in ATMnetworks

Since real-time variable bit rate (VBR) traffic is inherently bursty, dynamic bandwidth allocation is necessary for ATM streams that carry VBR traffic. In order to provide quality-of-services (QoS) guarantees and to reduce the computational complexity, an hybrid of guaranteed and dynamic adaptive allocation scheme requires to be implemented. Typical dynamic allocations to competing streams are done in the form of linear proportions to the bandwidth requirements. We show that during temporary link congestion such proportional arrangements can give rise to unequal queue growth and, subsequently, degraded QoS. This is found to be true even for streams that belong to the same VBR class and share identical long term traffic characteristics and QoS requirements. In this paper, four allocation algorithms are presented and analyzed in terms of their fairness and QoS potential for real-time VBR traffic. We propose and show that a novel allocation strategy, termed Minmax, solves the mentioned problem of unfairness within a class. By maintaining a fair distribution of buffer length across the streams of a class, the proposed policy can achieve better and fairer QoS performance compared to the traditional methods. We present analytical results, proofs and a simulation study of the described algorithms. Four allocation policies for handling MPEG VBR video streams are simulated in the context of a wireless ATM (WATM) medium access control. The results show that in certain scenarios, the Minmax strategy can reduce losses by an order of magnitude, while decreasing delays substantially     

The rate variability-distortion (VD) curve of encoded video and its impact on statistical multiplexing

Encoded video is expected to contribute a significant portion of the load on future communication systems and networks, which often employ statistical multiplexing. In such systems, the number of video streams that can be supported depends both on the mean bit rate as well as bit rate variability of the video streams. At the same time, the utility (revenue) earned from video streaming depends both on the number of supported video streams as well as their quality level. In this paper we examine the interplay between video quality, traffic variability, and utility for open-loop encoded video. We introduce the rate variability-distortion (VD) curve which relates the bit rate variability to the quality level of an encoded video. We find that the VD curve generally exhibits a characteristic "hump" behavior of first increasing, peaking, and subsequently decreasing variability for increasing quality. We examine the impact of video content characteristics, encoding parameters, and traffic smoothing on the VD behavior. We describe a methodology for assessing (i) the set of the video streams that can be supported with a statistical quality of service requirement, and (ii) the utility earned from video streaming over a link. This methodology is based on the rate-distortion and rate variability-distortion characteristics of the videos. We find that the statistical multiplexing gain and the utility as a function of the video quality level typically exhibit a "hump" similar to the VD curve.     

Smoothing and transporting video in QoS IP networks

Real‐time traffic such as voice and video, when transported over the Internet, demand stringent quality of service (QoS) requirements. The current Internet as of today is still used as a best effort environment with no quality guarantees. An IP‐based Internet that supports different QoS requirements for different applications has been evolving for the past few years. Video streams are bursty in nature due to the instant variability of the video content being encoded. To help mitigate the transport of bursty video streams with minimal loss of information, rate‐adaptive shapers (RASs) are usually being used to reduce the burstiness and therefore help preserve the desired quality. When transporting video over a QoS IP network, each stream is classified under a specific traffic profile to which it must conform, to avoid packet loss and picture quality degradation. In this paper we study, evaluate and propose RASs for the transport of video over a QoS IP network. We utilize the encoding video parameters for choosing the appropriate configuration needed to support the real‐time transport of Variable Bit Rate (VBR) encoded video streams. The performance evaluation of the different RASs is based on the transport of MPEG‐4 video streams encoded as VBR. The performance is studied based on looking at the effect of various parameters associated with the RASs on the effectiveness of smoothing out the burstiness of video and minimizing the probability of packet loss. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modeling one- and two-layer variable bit rate video

This paper presents a source model for VBR video traffic. A finite-state Markov chain is shown to accurately model one- and two-layer video of all activity levels on a per source basis. Our model captures the source dynamics, including the short-term correlations essential for studying network performance. The modeling technique is shown to be applicable for both H.261 and MPEG2 encoded video of a variety of activity levels. The traffic model is shown in a simulation study to be able to accurately characterize both the single-source buffer occupancy over a wide range of buffer sizes and the multiplexing behavior. The VBR video model is also used to model the enhancement layer of two-layer SNR scalable video. We show that two-layer encoding has significantly better statistical multiplexing gains than one-layer video, particularly when the network admits calls based on a leaky-bucket characterization