An efficient synchronization scheme of multimedia streams in wireless and mobile systems

Recent advances in mobile computing and distributed multimedia systems allow mobile hosts (clients) to access wireless multimedia systems anywhere and at anytime, but not without creating a new set of issues and trade-offs. To the best of our knowledge, there has been very little research in dealing with the synchronization problem in wireless and mobile multimedia systems. In this paper, we propose an efficient distributed synchronization algorithm using quasi-sink for wireless and mobile multimedia systems to ensure and facilitate mobile client access to multimedia objects. We discuss the algorithm and provide its proof of correctness. We also present a set of simulation experiments to evaluate the performance of our scheme using message complexity and buffer usage at each frame arrival time. Our results indicate that our scheme exhibits a significant low message complexity and no underflow and overflow within the bounded delivery time.     

异构分层无线网络中基于业务和逗留时间的动态流量均衡算法

在异构分层无线网络中使用有效的流量均衡技术,可以给更多的移动用户提供服务。现有的流量均衡算法主要针对同种无线网络,因而不能直接用于异构无线网络。本文提出了一种适用于异构无线网络的基于业务和逗留时间的动态流量均衡算法,该算法首先根据移动模型计算移动用户在小区内的逗留时间,然后基于小区呼叫到达率和重叠覆盖小区的流量状态来确定一个周期内转移的非实时性呼叫数量,最后依据逗留时间门限值将重负载小区中满足条件的呼叫转移到轻负载的重叠覆盖小区中。为降低切换呼叫掉线率,还对异构网间的呼叫切换策略做了改进。仿真实验结果表明．本算法在新呼叫阻寒率和切换呼叫掉线率等性能指标上比传统方法有显著提高．     

Multimedia Multicast in Mobile Computing: Handoff Management

With rapid technological advances being made in the area of wireless communications it is expected that, in the near future, mobile users will be able to access a wide variety of services such as multicast distribution of multimedia streams. These services are characterized by the integrated processing of different media types, such as audio and video. Different multimedia streams must be played out in a synchronized way. However, due to the asynchronous nature of the communication (packets or radio), some problems can disrupt the synchronization such as delay jitter. In this paper, we present a synchronization protocol for multicast of multimedia streams. It allows a mobile host to playback continuously a multimedia stream. When a mobile host moves from cell to cell, the scheme allows continuous playback. The mechanism used is based on the pre-buffering of media units. We present a computation of the handoff time and a mechanism for the restoration of the initial buffer size. Simulation results show that, when resources are already reserved, the handoff time is bounded and the buffer takes again its initial size.     

基于运动趋势的自适应垂直切换算法及其性能评价

采用不同的无线接入技术的多种网络的融合可以提高无线传输性能,为移动用户提供随时随地的网络连接.垂直切换是异构无线网络相互融合的基础.在垂直切换过程中,切换判定是一个非常重要的环节,直接决定切换性能.文中给出了常用的迟滞电平算法和驻留定时器算法中切换判定条件的形式化表达,并对其进行了性能分析.在此基础上,提出了一种自适应的垂直切换算法,通过分析节点的运动趋势,自适应地调节切换触发条件,有效提高垂直切换性能.所涉及的运算均为初等计算,算法简单,适用于低能量、低运算能力的移动设备.仿真实验表明,该算法的综合性能优于迟滞电平算法和驻留定时器算法.     

Handoff with energy awareness for future pervasive environments

Handoff management is one of the main research challenges for the realization of the envisioned mobile and wireless Internet. This is mainly due to the latency delay and energy consumption introduced during handoff, which are of major concern for real-time applications and battery-constrained mobile terminals. In this paper, we explore whether handoff management can benefit from the pervasiveness of future communication networks. The key idea is to follow the ambient intelligence paradigm for the purpose of context-aware handoff. More precisely, we focus on the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks (WSANs) pervasive technologies, and propose two schemes for handoff prediction at the network layer or at both link and network layers, respectively. Analytical models for their time response and energy consumption are firstly derived. Then simulation-based results show that both of our schemes can achieve 38% to 93% reduction in time response while the second scheme provides 88% energy savings, validating their superiority over the standard solutions.     

基于移动用户位置预测的垂直切换算法

针对异构无线网络环境中现有垂直切换算法存在难以实现移动用户接入网络的无缝切换,无法向用户提供稳定通信服务的问题,提出一种基于移动用户位置预测的垂直切换算法。首先利用用户移动轨迹的相似性,使用用户轨迹数据离线训练LSTM模型以学习各用户普遍具有的移动规律;然后在线加载LSTM模型进行用户位置预测,从而使用模糊逻辑分析计算下一时刻用户对应候选网络的回报值,并选取回报值最高的网络进行切换。实验结果表明,该算法与已有垂直切换算法相比,在不同的用户移动速度和用户规模条件下的切换次数、切换失败次数和切换时延均有明显下降,内存消耗较低,能够实现无缝切换。     

Scanless fast handoff technique based on global Path-Cache for WLANs

Wireless LANs (WLANs) have been widely adopted and are more convenient as they are interconnected as wireless campus networks and wireless mesh networks. However, time-sensitive multimedia applications, which have become more popular, could suffer from long end-to-end latency in WLANs. This is due mainly to handoff delay, which in turn is caused by channel scanning. This paper proposes a technique called Global Path-Cache (GPC) that provides fast handoffs in WLANs. GPC properly captures the dynamic behavior of the network and mobile stations (MSs), and provides accurate next-AP (access point) predictions to minimize the handoff latency. Moreover, the handoff frequencies are treated as time-series data, thus GPC calibrates the prediction models based on short-term and periodic behaviors of mobile users. Our simulation study shows that GPC virtually eliminates the need to scan for APs during handoffs and results in much better overall handoff delay compared to existing methods.     

A distributed-request-based CDMA CAC for DiffServ multimedia services in wireless cellular mobile networks

In this paper, a distributed-request-based CDMA DiffServ (differentiated service) call admission control (CAC) scheme is proposed to provide various multimedia services seamlessly in wireless mobile Internet. Conventional CDMA CAC schemes cannot fully support DiffServ QoS (Quality of Service) and seamless handoff due to lack of consideration on service priority and seamless mobility. Therefore, in order to achieve QoS guarantee for each service class, seamless fast-handoff, and high utilization of the scarce wireless resource, we define a code assignment policy and an adaptive access permission scheme taking each user’s service priority and mobility into consideration. For that purpose, in the proposed scheme, the DQRUMA/CDMA is combined with the new code assignment scheme and the adaptive access permission probability (APP). Numerical examples show that the forced termination ratio of handoff calls is guaranteed to be much less than the blocking ratio of new calls for a seamless fast-handoff while proposed scheme provides QoS guarantee for each service class efficiently.     

Pair-Wise Collision-Based Underwater Time Synchronization

Time synchronization is a critical issue for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSN). Although numerous time synchronization algorithms have been proposed for terrestrial wireless sensor networks, none of them could be applied to UWSN directly. This is because underwater time synchronization offers two fundamental challenges compared with terrestrial wireless sensor networks, i.e., (1) long propagation delay and (2) sensor node mobility. We propose a novel time synchronization approach called Coll-Sync to address the above challenging problems, which is a pair-wise collision-based time synchronization scheme for mobile underwater acoustic sensor networks. Coll-Sync adopts collision and packet meetings in a long propagation process to eliminate the effect of node mobility. In this paper, we indicate that collision and packet meetings contain highly useful information that can be leveraged to improve time synchronization. Through comprehensive experiments, we show that our proposed Coll-Sync greatly outperforms existing time synchronization schemes in both precision and energy saving.     

Dynamically adaptive channel reservation scheme for cellular networks

In personal communications networks (PCN) supporting network-wide handoffs, new and handoff requests compete for connection resources in both mobile and backbone networks. Forced call terminations due to handoff call blocking are generally more objectionable than new call blocking. In general, most of the previously proposed schemes for radio channel allocation in cellular networks reduce handoff call blocking probability substantially at the expense of increasing the new call blocking probability by giving higher priority to handoff calls over new calls in admission control. This reduces the total admitted traffic and results in inefficient utilization of wireless channels. The tradeoff between the new and handoff calls blocking probabilities should be defined on importance basis. In this paper, we propose a performance metric equation that makes a trade off between the two probabilities depending on the network preferences. Using this equation, we study the performance of various proposed channel reservation schemes. Also in this paper, a new dynamically adaptive channel reservation scheme (DACRS) is developed and compared with other schemes proposed in the literature. The DACRS assigns handoff-reserved channels to new calls depending on the locality principle in which the base station with the help of location estimation algorithms in the mobile location center predicts the position of the mobile terminal. Eventually, the DACRS is designed to improve channel utilization while satisfying the QoS of the calls. As will be shown analytically and through simulation, the DACRS outperforms current reservation schemes and results in more statistical gain, and powerful channel utilization.     

Context-aware handoff middleware for transparent service continuity in wireless networks

Advances in wireless networking and content delivery are enabling new challenging provisioning scenarios where a growing number of users access continuous services, e.g., audio/video streaming, while moving among different points of attachment to the Internet, possibly with different connectivity technologies, e.g., Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular 3G. That calls for novel middlewares capable of dynamically personalizing service provisioning to the characteristics of client environments, in particular to discontinuities in wireless resource availability due to handoffs. The paper proposes a novel middleware solution, called Mobile agent-based Ubiquitous multimedia Middleware (MUM), that performs effective and context-aware handoff management to transparently avoid service interruptions during both horizontal and vertical handoffs. MUM exploits the full visibility of wireless connections available and their handoff implementations (handoff awareness), of service quality requirements and handoff-related quality degradations (QoS awareness), and of network topology and local resource availability (location awareness); that visibility enables MUM to provide original solutions for handoff prediction, multimedia continuity via adaptive data buffering/pre-fetching, and proactive re-addressing/rebinding.     

Improving routing protocol performance in delay tolerant networks using extended information

Delay tolerant networks (DTNs) are wireless mobile networks that do not guarantee the existence of a path between a source and a destination at any time. When two nodes move within each other’s transmission range during a period of time, they can contact each other. The contact of nodes can be periodical, predictable and nonpredictable. In this paper, we assume the contact of nodes is nonpredictable so that it can reflect the most flexible way of nodes movement. Due to the uncertainty and time-varying nature of DTNs, routing poses special challenges. Some existing schemes use utility functions to steer the routing in the right direction. We find that these schemes do not capture enough information of the network. Thus, we develop an extended information model that can capture more mobility information and use regression functions for data processing. Experimental results from both our own simulator and real wireless trace data show that our routing algorithms based on the extended information model can increase the delivery ratio and reduce the delivery latency of routing compared with existing ones.     

基于虚拟接口的802.11网络切换技术

802.11网络现有的切换方案可以解决域内切换问题,域间切换涉及网络层切换操作,导致较大的网络延迟和大量的分组丢失。该文提出一种基于虚拟接口的802.11网络切换方法,通过对一个物理接口设备分时使用,使得无线终端在保证现有通信质量的情况下,平滑地完成与新无线访问点AP建立无线链路的过程。该方法具有实现简单、不用修改现有的Mobile IP协议等优点,在NS系统上的模拟表明,该方法能够满足实时交互式应用对移动切换过程中的网络质量需求。     

An integrated traffic model for multimedia wireless networks

Multimedia wireless networks are seen today as one of the key factors for the success of the global communication infrastructure in the near future. Such networks will have to handle a range of heterogeneous traffic classes with different QoS requirements. Their design, planning and control must be supported by suitable traffic models capable of dealing with a new set of constraints where QoS management and mobility play an important role.This paper proposes a traffic model for a cellular multimedia wireless network characterized by the integration of mobility and traffic management aspects. User mobility is modeled through a Markov renewal process, which allows for non-exponential cell residence times and may restrict the user mobility to existent paths in the system. A Markov-modulated fluid process is used to describe the changes in the bandwidth requirements of each mobile over the duration of its calls, including the periods where the mobile is inactive (without call).Based on the proposed model, the number of mobiles per class of traffic in a cell and the handoff processes are characterized. System performance results, such as new and handoff call blocking probabilities, for network planning are derived. Also, the distribution of the required capacity in a short time interval for network control is obtained. Simulations were carried out to validate the analytical results. The comparisons have shown that the integrated model may be regarded as a good basis to build useful teletraffic engineering tools for multimedia wireless networks.     

Qos-aware Middleware for Mobile Multimedia Communications

Next generation wireless communications system will be required to support the seamless delivery of voice, video and data with high quality. Delivering hard Quality of Service (QOS) assurances in the wireless domain is complex due to large-scale mobility requirements, limited radio resources and fluctuating network conditions. To address this challenge we are developing mobiware, a QOS-aware middleware platform that contains the complexity of supporting multimedia applications operating over wireless and mobile networks. Mobiware is a highly programmable software platform based on the latest distributed systems technology (viz. CORBA and Java). It is designed to operate between the application and radio-link layers of next generation wireless and mobile systems. Mobiware provides value-added QOS support by allowing mobile multimedia applications to operate transparently during handoff and periods of persistent QOS fluctuation.     

分层蜂窝网络中基于移动速度、方向的流量均衡

在异构无线网络中,使用有效的流量均衡可以服务更多的移动用户。文章为异构分层无线网络提出了一种基于移动速度、方向和位置的流量均衡算法,其原理是选择逗留时间较长的移动用户执行垂直切换,从负载较重的小区转移到负载较轻的重叠覆盖小区。同时,快速切换呼叫在一定条件下可以接入到微小区,慢速切换呼叫也可以切换进入宏小区。仿真实验结果表明,该算法改善了新呼叫阻塞率和切换呼叫掉线率等方面的性能。     

Double-sided auctions applied to vertical handover for mobility management in wireless networks

In the next generation Internet, we have seen the convergence of multimedia services and Internet with the mobility of users. Vertical handover decision (VHD) algorithm are essential components of the mobility management architecture in mobile wireless networks. VHD algorithms help mobile users to choose the best mobile network to connect among available candidates. It also can help the network manager to optimize easily the limited resources shared among the network providers and the users. In this article, we formulate VHD algorithm as a resource allocation problem for down-link transmission power in multiple W-CDMA networks and show how combinatorial double-sided auctions can be applied to this specific problem. The proposed pricing schemes make use of the signal interference to noise ratio, achievable data rates, power allocation at mobile networks, and monetary cost as decision criteria and our model differentiate between new calls and on-going communications to take into account that the last category has somewhat more importance. Several combinatorial double-sided auction are proposed to maximize the social welfare and /or to provide incentives for mobile users and mobile operators to be truth-telling in terms of valuation or cost. Finally, the economic properties of the different proposed pricing schemes are also studied by means of simulations.     

Hierarchical management protocol for constructing a QoS communication path in wireless Ad Hoc networks

An Ad Hoc network consists of mobile hosts that can dynamically construct a wireless network without base stations. Due to the limited communication range, a source host usually needs other hosts to relay messages to the destination in a multi-hop manner. Consequently, establishing a routing path from the source to the destination is a basic requirement for providing communication service between any pair of mobile hosts. This study proposes a two-level management approach for efficiently constructing and maintaining a QoS routing path in Ad Hoc wireless networks, significantly reducing the quantity of control packets. In the first phase, the mobile hosts are partitioned into a number of complete graphs, each represented by a Supernode managed by an agent. The Ad Hoc network topology is thus transformed to an Agent-based Graph (AG). In the second phase, some agents of a larger degree than neighboring agents are selected as core nodes. The core nodes then virtually construct a Core Graph (CG). The proposed two-level hierarchical management and bandwidth-looking-ahead technologies can efficiently establish and maintain a QoS communication path at a low control packet cost. Simulation results indicate that the proposed management model significantly reduces the number of control packets in areas with very large numbers of mobile hosts.     

Mobility information for resource management in wireless ATM networks

User mobility poses a significant technical challenge to network resource management in wireless ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) networks. In order to guarantee quality of service (QoS) to mobile users and to achieve a high efficiency in network resource management, the information of mobile users' handoff at a future moment is essential for statistical multiplexing. This paper develops a novel fuzzy logic inference system to estimate the user mobility information for a wireless ATM network which uses a direct sequence code division multiple access (DS/CDMA) protocol. The estimation is based on measured pilot signal strengths from a number of the nearest base stations by the mobile user. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed technique under various path losses and channel shadowing conditions. The proposed technique can achieve simplicity, accuracy and low cost.     

无线局域网下PCF结点切换时的资源预留方案

在无线局域网（WLAN）环境中,对VoIP等实时应用结点在漫游切换时,提前在邻居AP小区进行带宽资源预留是保障其获得持续、一致OoS的主要措施．但是目前的资源预留方法要么计算复杂,不符合WLAN的实际情况;要么效率低下,不能很好地为切换结点提供资源保证．在结合已有的预留算法的基础上,根据WLAN本身的特点,提出了一种PCF结点资源预留方法,使VoIP结点采用PCFAP轮询信道访问方式,通过VoIP结点漫游时发现邻居AP的存在,提前向邻居AP发出资源预留请求,同时邻居AP根据网络状况动态调整预留资源大小．仿真实验结果表明,在不浪费无线带宽资源的条件下,提出的方法相对于其他预留方案能够获得更低的切换连接掉线率．