Economic analysis of robust access network architecture in two-tierdata networks

Recent studies have addressed routing and performance issues of nonhierarchical and hierarchical backbone packet networks in a unified fashion, by adopting an end-to-end mean delay objective and including a variety of practical routing constraints. The authors build on this approach to include the design of robust access networks, and they analyze the economic and robustness-related tradeoffs of several access network architectures in two-tier data packet networks. Two-tier architectures consist of an access network that homes to a high-capacity backbone network through a variety of topological arrangements. The access tier provides protocol handling and traffic concentration. The backbone tier performs high-speed transport and alternate routing under congestion/failure conditions. They identify the fundamental access network parameters that allow them to develop network designs with optimized characteristics. The analysis demonstrates the cost effectiveness of access diversity as well as the enhanced robustness it can provide even though it requires higher switch functionality and cost     

WDM packet routing for high-capacity data networks

We present experimental and numerical studies of a novel packet-switch architecture, the data vortex, designed for large-scale photonic interconnections. The selfrouting multihop packet switch efficiently scales to large port counts (>10 k) while maintaining low latencies, a narrow latency distribution, and high throughput. To facilitate optical implementation, the data-vortex architecture employs a novel hierarchical topology, traffic control, and synchronous timing that act to reduce the necessary routing logic operations and buffering. As a result of this architecture, all routing decisions for the data packets are based on a single logic operation at each node. The routing is further simplified by the employment of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM)-encoded header bits, which enable packet-header processing by simple wavelength filtering. The packet payload remains in the optical domain as it propagates through the data-vortex switch fabric, exploiting the transparency and high bandwidths achievable in fiber optic transmission. In this paper, we discuss numerical simulations of the data-vortex performance and report results from an experimental investigation of multihop WDM packet routing in a recirculating test bed     

A routing architecture for mobile integrated services networks

A drawback of the conventional Internet routing architecture is that its route computation and packet forwarding mechanisms are poorly integrated with congestion control mechanisms. Any datagram offered to the network is accepted; routers forward packets on a best-effort basis and react to congestion only after the network resources have already been wasted. A number of proposals improve on this to support multimedia applications; a promising example is the Integrated Services Packet Network (ISPN) architecture. However, these proposals are oriented to networks with fairly static topologies and rely on the same conventional Internet routing protocols to operate. This paper presents a routing architecture for mobile integrated services networks in which network nodes (routers) can move constantly while providing end-to-end performance guarantees. In the proposed connectionless routing architecture, packets are individually routed towards their destinations on a hop by hop basis. A packet intended for a given destination is allowed to enter the network if and only if there is at least one path of routers with enough resources to ensure its delivery within a finite time. Once a packet is accepted into the network, it is delivered to its destination, unless resource failures prevent it. Each router reserves resources for each active destination, rather than for each source–destination session, and forwards a received packet along one of multiple loop-free paths towards the destination. The resources and available paths for each destination are updated to adapt to congestion and topology changes. This mechanism could be extended to aggregate dissimilar flows as well. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Distributed source control: a network access control for integratedbroadband packet networks

The authors propose a congestion control strategy called distributed source control (DSC), designed to address the integration of diverse traffic types in broadband packet networks. DSC is a rate-based network access control implemented at the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) layer as a feedforward control, in conjunction with an adaptive end-to-end control between network edges. The authors examine the performance of high-speed data traffic such as large file transfers, still images, and document retrievals. The authors study DSC's integrability with real-time traffic such as voice and video. With the help of a simulation model of a broadband packet network (150 Mb/s), the authors quantify the improvement in network performance due to DSC. An analytic model for an access node under DSC is developed, and guidelines for sizing of buffers in the switch and for choosing the end-to-end window size are provided     

A robust fiber-radio architecture for wavelength-division-multiplexing ring-access networks

In this paper, we propose a dynamic wavelength-allocation scheme for wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) fiber-radio ring-access networks. This scheme can be used to improve the use efficiency of wavelengths at the burst traffic load on the fiber-radio networks. Moreover, a novel bidirectional wavelength add-drop multiplexer (B-WADM) is designed on the backboned ring, which can connect the working and standby sub-rings. It can provide the self-protected function that uses just a few optical devices under link failures. Furthermore, we carry out this study through the simulation and analysis for carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR), channel capacity, and spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) of the fiber-radio network. Finally, we set up an experimental network to demonstrate its performance. The experimental results illustrate that this fiber-radio architecture can provide the robust, flexible, and reliable characteristics for large radio terminals.     

A packet media access protocol for mobile networks*

In this paper, we propose and analyze a packet time division multiple access protocol for the media access control (mac) sublayer of a radio interface suitable to be implemented in the third generation of mobile networks. This protocol is considered to be adequate for future personal communications networks that should interwork with the broadband-isdn. The protocol is designed to work in a microcell environment employing low power terminals, and to support a wide spectrum of services with both asynchronous and isochronous traffic profiles and different bandwidth requirements.     

Deterministic access protocols for packet radio networks

In this paper, multiple-phase deterministic protocols for packet radio networks are introduced and analysed. Two modes of information transfer are considered, namely (a) broadcasting and (b) point-to-point transmission. We explore systematic ways of designing multiple-phase protocols and apply them on Manhattan networks. The proposed protocols are studied primarily from the point of view of throughput efficiency. Delay analysis is also presented.     

A signaling architecture for wireless ATM access networks

A multiservice wireless Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) access system is considered from a signaling protocol viewpoint. In an attempt to generalize and extend results and experiences obtained from the specification, design, and implementation of fixed ATM‐based access networks, we extend the concept of the broadband V interface (referred to as VB) for application to wireless ATM access networks. The proposed architecture follows the signaling structure of Broadband ISDN (B‐ISDN) User–Network Interface (UNI), thus offering the possibility for integration of the wireless ATM access system into fixed B‐ISDN. It is shown that the use of the proposed access signaling architecture provides cost effective implementations without degrading the agreed Quality of Service (QoS), and simplifies call/connection and handover control. The evaluation of the proposed access signaling protocol structure yields results that fall within acceptable ATM signaling performance measures. A performance comparison of our approach with an alternative access signaling configuration is also carried out to quantify the relative gains. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A software architecture for workstations supporting multimediaconferencing in packet switching networks

The software architecture of a multimedia workstation connected to an experimental packet switching network which is capable of switching voice, data, and video simultaneously is described. The user of a multimedia workstation may engage in several multimedia calls, each using multiple information streams consisting of voice, data, and images. The network interface software in the workstation maintains the temporal relationship among a given call's information streams. For each call, the network interface provides a multiple information channel interface to upper layer software supporting the notion of a multimedia virtual circuit. A connector mechanism is provided to control the information exchange among the network interface, the various voice, data, and image peripherals, and the computer programs used in a multimedia application. These information sources and sinks share a common abstraction called active devices     

Novel packet architecture for all-optical ultrafast packet-switching networks

Header recognition and packet detection in all-optical networks using on/off optical ultrafast signalling at a fixed wavelength can be implemented by means of recently demonstrated optical sampling AND gates. A novel packet structure in which the header is spread in a TDM fashion over the optical packet allows the number of such AND gates to be minimised in the routing and receiving blocks thereby best exploiting the required electronics.<>     

Multi-path routing based on load-balance for cognitive packet networks

Quality of service(QoS)routing algorithms have been hardly discussed in the scientific community,most previous work on QoS routing concentrates on the performance of the single route.Cognitive packet network(CPN)has been designed for providing QoS routing.In this paper,to balance the loads among networks,we present a multi-path routing algorithm based on load-balance(MPRLB),which is carried out in two steps.The algorithm with low computational complexity is firstly applied to establish multi path routing for each source and destination node pairs(SD-pair)nodes in the network.Then,we propose the hopfield neural network algorithm,which is applied to improve the efficiency of the flow deviation method for fast flow allocation among the links of the network based on load balance.Extensive simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme significantly improves the performance compared with the existing scheme that ignores load balancing.     

Fundamentals of packet multiple access for satellite networks

The fundamental objectives which guide the design of a packet multiple-access technique for satellite networks with large numbers of earth stations are explained. Among these objectives are low peak power in the transmitters, low average power from the satellite transponder, high channel capacity, and low complexity of the multiple-access receiver. The author reviews the fundamentals of satellite packet multiple access and relates these fundamentals to the objectives listed. Code division multiple-access (CDMA) and ALOHA multiple access are described in terms of these fundamentals. A simple linear transformation of conventional ALOHA access, called spread ALOHA, is described. For the case of a low signal-to-noise ratio in the receiver and a low duty cycle of individual and identical transmitters, it is not possible to find a multiple-access method at the same average power and are the same bandwidth which is more efficient than spread ALOHA     

TOPS: an architecture for telephony over packet networks

Packet telephony is of increasing interest in both the telecommunications and Internet communities. The emergence of packet telephony will create new services, and presents an opportunity to rethink how conventional telephony services are implemented. In this paper, we present an architecture for telephony over packet networks (TOPS). TOPS allows users to move between terminals or to use mobile terminals while being reachable by the same name. TOPS users can have multiple terminals and control how calls are routed to them. TOPS allows for terminals with a range of capabilities such as support for video, whiteboard, and other media with a variety of coding formats. TOPS retains the necessary information on terminal capabilities to determine the appropriate type of communication to be established with the remote terminal. The architecture assumes that the underlying network supports the establishment of end-to-end connectivity between terminals, with an appropriate quality of service. The components of TOPS are a directory service, an application layer signaling protocol, and a logical channel abstraction for communication between end-systems. The directory service maps a user's name to a set of terminals where the user may be reached. A user can control the translation operation by specifying profiles that customize how his name is mapped to a set of terminals where he can be reached. Terminal capabilities are also stored in the directory service. The application layer signaling protocol establishes and maintains call state between communicating terminals. The logical channel abstraction provides a shared end-to-end context for a call's constituent media and control streams, while isolating the applications from the details of the network transport mechanisms. In addition to supporting simple point-to-point calls, the architecture supports both centralized and decentralized conferencing. We also introduce a simple encapsulation format for voice     

An effective buffering architecture for optical packet switching networks

A novel optical buffering architecture for Optical Packet Switching (OPS) networks is proposed in this article. The architecture which adopts a fiber-sharing mechanism aims at solving the problem of using a large number of fiber delay lines that are used to solve resource contention in the core node in OPS networks. The new architecture employs fewer fiber delay lines compared to other simple architectures, but can achieve the same performance. Simulation results and analysis show that the new architecture can decrease packet loss probability effectively and achieve reasonable performance in average packet delay.

An architecture for next-generation radio access networks

With fourth-generation wireless technologies envisioned to provide high bandwidth for content-rich multimedia applications, next-generation mobile communication systems are well poised to lead the technology march. Incumbent with the new technology is the challenge of providing flexible, reconfigurable architectures capable of catering to the dynamics of the network, while providing cost-effective solutions for service providers. In this article we focus on IP-based radio access network architectures for next-generation mobile systems. We provide an insight into wireless mesh-based connectivity for the RAN network elements - using short high-bandwidth links to interconnect the network entities in a multihop mesh network for backhauling traffic to the core. A generic self-similar fractal topology, using optical wireless transmission technology, is described. We study the performance of the architecture and conclude that mesh-based architectures are well suited to provide highly scalable, dynamic radio access networks with carrier-class features at significantly low system costs.     

Optimal MAC packet size in networks without cut-through routing

This paper presents an analytical method of optimal breaking of a transmission control protocol (TCP)/Internet protocol (IP) message into medium access control (MAC) packets in networks without cut-through routing (such as networks compliant with the IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network standard). The method accounts for the transmission delay of acknowledgement frames, the sliding window flow control in TCP/IP protocol, error control via retransmissions, and heterogeneity of transport parameters (link-to-link and upstream-downstream) along a multihop network path. Mathematically, the problem consists in minimizing the TCP/IP message transaction time, a nonlinear function of the MAC packet size, in the presence of a set of linear restrictions. Throughput calculations illustrating this method are performed using IEEE 802.11 data.     

Jointly optimal routing and scheduling in packet ratio networks

A multihop packet radio network is considered with a single traffic class and given end-to-end transmission requirements. A transmission schedule specifies at each time instant the set of links which are allowed to transmit. The purpose of a schedule is to prevent interference among transmissions from neighboring links. Given amounts of information are residing initially at a subset of the network nodes and must be delivered to a prespecified set of destination nodes. The transmission schedule that evacuates the network in minimum time is specified. The decomposition of the problem into a pure routing and a pure scheduling problem is crucial for the characterization of the optimal transmission schedule     

An IP transport and routing architecture for next-generationsatellite networks

Over the past several years, a number of new satellite systems have been proposed to provide high-speed Internet and multimedia services to businesses and home users. These proposals have been driven by the desire of network operators to reach end users that do not have cost effective access to other alternatives such as fiber, DSL, and cable, and by the availability of new spectrum (Ka-band) for use by new satellite services. The proposed systems generally employ multiple high-power spot beams, an onboard fast packet switch, and a demand-assigned multiple access scheme to provision IP-based services. In this article we concentrate on a geosynchronous satellite system where packet transport and switching within the satellite system are based on ATM. We describe an IP/ATM interworking and IP routing architecture that is driven by three main requirements: (1) the ability to support ATM SVCs between hundreds of thousands of satellite terminals by a single ATM switch located onboard; (2) a scalable IP routing architecture that does not result in large volumes of routing traffic to be transported over the satellite; and (3) the ability to segment the satellite terminals for routing and administrative control by ISPs and enterprise networks