High-rate wireless personal area networks

This article presents an overview of high-rate wireless personal area networks, its targeted applications, and a technical overview of medium access control and physical layers, and system performance. The high-rate WPANs operate in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz band at data rates up to 55 Mb/s that are commensurate with distribution of high-definition video and high-fidelity audio. An industry effort to create a MAC and PHY layer standard specification for high-rate WPANs has been ongoing in the IEEE 802.15.3 High Rate WPAN Task Group     

Analysis of bandwidth allocation algorithms for wireless personal area networks

A major issue in the design and operation of ad hoc networks is sharing the common spectrum among links in the same geographic area. Bandwidth allocation, to optimize the performance of networks in which each station can converse with at most a single neighbor at a time, has been recently studied in the context of Bluetooth Personal Area Networks. There, centralized and distributed, capacity assignment heuristics were developed, with applicability to a variety of ad hoc networks. Yet, no guarantees on the performance of these heuristics have been provided. In this paper, we extend these heuristics such that they can operate with general convex objective functions. Then, we present our analytic results regarding these heuristics. Specifically, we show that they are β-approximation (β<2) algorithms. Moreover, we show that even though the distributed and centralized algorithms allocate capacity in a different manner, both algorithms converge to the same results. Finally, we present numerical results that demonstrate the performance of the algorithms. Randeep Bhatia received the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from University of Maryland, the M.S. degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from University of Illinois at Chicago and the B.Tech. degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He is currently with the High Speed Networks Research Department at Bell Labs, Lucent technologies, working on network design, traffic engineering and scheduling algorithms. His current research interests are in the area of QoS for multimedia services in wireless data networks. Adrian Segall received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology in 1965 and 1971, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering with a minor in statistics from Stanford University in 1973. After serving active duty in the Israel Defense Forces, he joined in 1968 the Scientific Department of Israel’s Ministry of Defense. From 1973 to 1974 he was a Research Engineer at System Control Inc., Palo Alto, CA and a Lecturer at Stanford University. From 1974 to 1976 he was an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1987 to 1998 he was on the faculty of the Department of Computer Science at the Technion. He is presently Benjamin Professor of Computer-Communication Networks in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. From 1982 to 1984 he was on leave with the IBM T.J.Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY. He held visiting positions with IBM, AT&T and Lucent Bell Labs. His current research interests are in the area of optical networks, wireless, sensor and ad-hoc networks. Dr. Segall is an IEEE Fellow and has served in the past as Editor for Computer Communication Theory of the IEEE Transactions on Communications, Editor for the IEEE Information Theory Society Newsletter and Senior Editor for the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. He was selected as an IEEE delegate to the 1975 IEEE-USSR Information Theory Workshop, and is the recipient of the 1981 Miriam and Ray Klein Award for Outstanding Research and of the 1990 Taub Award in Computer Science. Gil Zussman received the B.Sc. degree in Industrial Engineering and Management and the B.A. degree in Economics (both summa cum laude) from the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology in 1995. He received the M.Sc. degree (summa cum laude) in Operations Research from Tel-Aviv University in 1999 and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology in 2004. Between 1995 and 1998, he served as an engineer in the Israel Defense Forces. He is currently a Postdoctoral Associate in the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems in MIT. His current research interests are in the area of ad hoc and sensor networks. In particular, he is interested in energy efficient protocols, medium access control protocols, and personal area networks. Gil received the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) Award for distinguished students, the Best Student Paper Award at the IFIP-TC6 Networking 2002 Conference, and the IEEE Communications Magazine Best Paper Award at the OPNETWORK 2002 Conference. In 2004 he received the Marie Curie Outgoing International Fellowship and the Fulbright Fellowship.     

Energy-aware on-demand scatternet formation and routing for Bluetooth-based wireless sensor networks

Bluetooth is a promising short-range wireless communication technology with the characteristics of interference resilience and power efficiency, both desirable for wireless sensor networks. The new Intel Mote sensor devices have Bluetooth technology incorporated as the standard wireless communications interface. When using Bluetooth in applications where multihop routing is required, groups of Bluetooth piconets combine together to form a scatternet. However, most of the existing scatternet formation protocols are designed to facilitate communications between any two pairs of devices, regardless of the actual traffic demand pattern. For wireless sensor network applications with low-duty-cycle traffic patterns, an on-demand scatternet formation protocol can achieve significant power saving by avoiding unnecessary network connectivity. To that end, we introduce an on-demand scatternet and route formation protocol designed specifically for Bluetooth-based wireless sensor networks. Our protocol builds a scatternet on demand, and is able to cope with multiple sources initiating traffic simultaneously. In addition, our energy-aware forwarding nodes selection scheme is based on local information only, and results in more uniform network resource utilization and improved network lifetime. Simulation results show that our protocol can provide scatternet formation with reasonable delay and good load balance, which results in prolonged network lifetime for Bluetooth-based wireless sensor networks.     

Realizing Gbps wireless personal area networks - guest editorial

The 19 papers in this special issue focus on the push beyond giga-bit-per-second (Gbps) data rates, in order to more rapidly access data on personal devices, as well as potentially replace all the cables going into a device, including the video cable. This issue beings together the state-of-the-art, across multiple disciplines, for achieving Gbps WPAN capability.     

Hybrid beam-forming and beam-switching for OFDM based wireless personal area networks

In this paper, we propose a hybrid beam-forming and beam-switching technique for OFDM based wireless personal area networks (WPAN). In order to compromise between performance and computational cost and overheads for the channel side information feedback, the proposed system employs hybrid beam-forming and beam-switching, where the block beam-switching using a predefined beam codebook is used at the transmitter while the optimum per-subcarrier beam-forming is used at the receiver. To verify the performance of the proposed scheme, the effective SNR gain over the single antenna transmission system is investigated along with the spectral efficiency bound for some of the channels developed by the IEEE 802.15.3c task group. For comparison, the performance of the optimum per-subcarrier beam-forming and the block beam-switching are also examined.     

Dynamic adaptive frequency hopping for mutually interfering wireless personal area networks

As the wireless personal area network (WPAN) gets utilized by more individuals, the interference that collocated WPANs cause to each other, termed self-interference, will be one of the major sources that degrade WPAN's communication performance. The conventional adaptive frequency hopping (AFH) strategies avoid frequency-static interference by reducing the hopset, but this deteriorates the performance if there is also self-interference. In this paper, we propose dynamic AFH (DAFH) mechanisms that are concurrently employed by collocated WPANs in order to avoid the self-interference. With DAFH, WPAN adaptively self-allocates a subset of frequency channels to be hopped, such as to minimize the experienced interference. The packet error rate is the only input to the proposed mechanisms, which enables DAFH to also avoid interference from frequency-static interferer. The optimization of the throughput should not be the sole target of the DAFH because WPAN operates in unlicensed spectrum and arbitrary adaptation of the FH pattern may be harmful to proximate non-WPAN devices. Therefore, we define and adopt an etiquette rule to characterize the behavior of the collocated WPANs with DAFH as a single collective entity that produces interference. The operation of DAFH is robust and adaptive to the dynamic changes in the environment and to the noise errors in the channel. Simulation results show that DAFH significantly increases the throughput of the WPANs in presence of both self-interference and frequency-static interference, while the WPANs employ best effort to minimize changes in the overall interference pattern.     

Distributed topology construction of Bluetooth wireless personal area networks

Bluetooth, a wireless technology based on a frequency-hopping physical layer, enables portable devices to form short-range wireless ad hoc networks. Bluetooth hosts are not able to communicate unless they have previously discovered each other through synchronization of their timing and frequency-hopping patterns. Thus, even if all nodes are within proximity of each other, only those nodes which are synchronized with the transmitter can hear the transmission. To support any-to-any communication, nodes must be synchronized so that the pairs of nodes, which can communicate with each other, form a connected graph. Using Bluetooth as an example, we first provide deeper insights into the issue of link establishment in frequency-hopping wireless systems. We then introduce an asynchronous distributed protocol that begins with nodes having no knowledge of their surroundings and terminates with the formation of a connected network topology satisfying all constraints posed by Bluetooth. An attractive protocol feature is its ease in implementation using the communication primitives offered by the Bluetooth Specification.     

Meshing wireless personal area networks: Introducing IEEE 802.15.5

This article presents an overview of the IEEE project 802.15.5 that targets providing mesh capabilities to both high-rate and low-rate wireless personal area networks. Low-rate mesh is built on IEEE 802.15.4 MAC, while high-rate mesh utilizes IEEE 802.15.3 MAC. We seek to share our insights and motivations of the approach adopted in the major components of the standard instead of presenting a la carte items drawn in the specification. We hope this article helps readers of the 802.15.5 standard to better understand the rationale and intent of the protocol design.     

Hidden node collision recovery protocol for low rate wireless personal area networks

Referring to most media access control (MAC) protocols in low rate personal area networks (LR‐WPANs), there is no hidden node collision avoidance mechanism utilized. Quantitative analysis in this paper based on the IEEE 802.15.4 specification shows a high probability of the continuous hidden node collisions (CHNCs), which seriously decreases network throughput. Based on this observation, we propose a cost‐efficient recovery mechanism to achieve fast self‐healing when LR‐WPANs suffer CHNCs, while introducing no overhead when there are no collisions. Simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of our proposed protocol in terms of network throughput and power saving. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Energy-efficient resource allocation model for device-to-device communication in 5G wireless personal area networks

In general, there are several many devices that can overload the network and reduce performance. Devices can minimize interference and optimize bandwidth usage by using directional antennas and by avoiding overlapping communication ranges. In addition, devices need to carefully manage their use of resources, such as bandwidth and energy. Bandwidth is limited in wireless personal area networks (WPANs), so devices need to carefully select which data to send and receive. In this paper, an intelligent performance analysis of energy-efficient resource optimization model has been proposed for device-to-device (D2D) communication in fifth-generation (5G) WPAN. The proposed energy-efficient resource allocation in D2D communication is important because it helps reduce energy consumption and extend the lifespan of devices that are communicating with each other. By allocating resources in an efficient manner, communication between two devices can be optimized for maximum efficiency. This helps reduce the amount of energy needed to power the communication, as well as the amount of energy needed to power the device that is communicating with another device. Additionally, efficient resource allocation helps reduce the overall cost of communication, as the use of fewer resources results in a lower overall cost. The proposed efficient resource allocation helps reduce the environmental impact of communication, as less energy is used for communication. The proposed energy-efficient resource allocation model (EERAM) has reached 92.97% of energy allocation, 88.72% of power allocation, 87.79% of bandwidth allocation, 87.93% of spectrum allocation, 88.43% of channel allocation, 25.47% of end-to-end delay, 94.33% of network data speed, and 90.99% of network throughput.     

太赫兹无线个域网公平高效的MAC层优化机制

针对太赫兹无线个域网双信道媒体访问控制(Medium Access Control, MAC)协议中存在的信道资源分配公平性差、数据帧重传效率低和控制开销较高的问题,提出了一种公平高效的MAC层优化机制。新机制采用基于历史时隙申请信息的信道资源分配策略优化时隙分配公平性,根据信道质量自适应选择数据帧重传机制,控制节点从申请时隙的节点发送的控制帧中的“duration”字段提取时隙申请信息,省略时隙申请帧的发送,从而降低数据帧排队时延和控制开销,提高吞吐量。仿真结果表明,与TAB-MAC和MDP-MAC协议的机制相比,所提机制的数据帧平均排队时延降低了15%,吞吐量提高了5%。     

Feedback-assisted MAC protocol for real time traffic in high rate wireless personal area networks

During the past decade, there has been much standardization effort for indoor or shot-range networks, as communication devices and applications for such networks populate. As a prominent example of these activities, the IEEE 802.15.3 Task Group (TG) published a standard for high-rate wireless personal area network (HR-WPAN). To support strictly timed multimedia services, the TG adopts a time-slotted channel access protocol controlled by a central device (DEV). Although the channel time allocation algorithm plays a key role in deciding the network performance, it remains unspecified in the standard. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a novel feedback-assisted channel time allocation method for HR-WPAN. After initial channel times are allocated based on packet inter-arrival time statistics, the allocation is dynamically adjusted by utilizing feedback information from each DEV. The feedback information includes the buffer status, the packet transmission delay, and the physical transmission rate. By utilizing this feedback information, the central DEV can allocate sufficient channel time for transmissions of pending packets from a DEV. Moreover, the allocated channel times can be synchronized to the packet arrival times so that the overall transmission delay is reduced. To cope with time-varying wireless channels, a dynamic rate selection algorithm assisted by physical layer information is proposed in this paper. Performance evaluation is carried out through extensive simulations, from which significant performance enhancements are observed.     

Designing power aware self-reconfiguring topology for mobile wireless personal area networks using fuzzy logic

In mobile wireless personal area networks (WPAN), the position of each node changes over time. A network protocol that is able to dynamically update its links in order to maintain strong connectivity is said to be "self-reconfiguring." We propose a mobile wireless personal area networks (WPAN) design method with self-reconfiguring protocol for power efficiency. The WPAN is self-organized to clusters using an unsupervised clustering method, fuzzy c-means. A fuzzy logic system is applied to master/controller election for each cluster. A self-reconfiguring topology is proposed to manage the mobility and recursively update the network topology. We also modify the mobility management scheme with hysteresis to overcome the ping-pong effect. Simulation results show that our scheme performs much better than the existing algorithm.     

Energy optimal control for time-varying wireless networks

We develop a dynamic control strategy for minimizing energy expenditure in a time-varying wireless network with adaptive transmission rates. The algorithm operates without knowledge of traffic rates or channel statistics, and yields average power that is arbitrarily close to the minimum possible value achieved by an algorithm optimized with complete knowledge of future events. Proximity to this optimal solution is shown to be inversely proportional to network delay. We then present a similar algorithm that solves the related problem of maximizing network throughput subject to peak and average power constraints. The techniques used in this paper are novel and establish a foundation for stochastic network optimization     

Paging area optimization based on interval estimation in wireless personal communication networks

We consider an optimum personal paging area configuration problem to improve the paging efficiency in PCS/cellular mobile networks. The approach is to set up the boundaries of a one-step paging area that contain the locations of a mobile user with a high probability and to adjust the boundaries to gain a coverage that is matched to the mobile user's time-varying mobility pattern. We formulate the problem as an interval estimation problem. The objective is to reduce the paging signaling cost by minimizing the size of the paging area constrained to certain confidence measure (probability of locating the user), based on a finite number of available location observations of the mobile user. Modeling user mobility as a Brownian motion with the drift stochastic process and by estimating the parameters of the location probability distribution of the mobility process, the effects of the mobility characteristics and the system design parameters on the optimum paging area are investigated. Results show: (1) the optimum paging area expands with the time elapsed after the last known location of the user; (2) it also increases with the length of a prediction interval and the location probability; (3) the relative change in the paging area size decreases with the increase in the number of location observations. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Paging area optimization based on interval estimation in wireless personal communication networks

We consider an optimum personal paging area configuration problem to improve the paging efficiency in PCS/cellular mobile networks. The approach is to set up the boundaries of a one-step paging area that contain the locations of a mobile user with a high probability and to adjust the boundaries to gain a coverage that is matched to the mobile user's time-varying mobility pattern. We formulate the problem as an interval estimation problem. The objective is to reduce the paging signaling cost by minimizing the size of the paging area constrained to certain confidence measure (probability of locating the user), based on a finite number of available location observations of the mobile user. Modeling user mobility as a Brownian motion with the drift stochastic process and by estimating the parameters of the location probability distribution of the mobility process, the effects of the mobility characteristics and the system design parameters on the optimum paging area are investigated. Results show: (1) the optimum paging area expands with the time elapsed after the last known location of the user; (2) it also increases with the length of a prediction interval and the location probability; (3) the relative change in the paging area size decreases with the increase in the number of location observations. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Empowering next-generation wireless personal communication networks

Next-generation wireless systems should provide to the user access to a broad range of services in a transparent way, independent of user location by making the technology invisible and embedded in the natural surroundings. Reaching this goal requires efficient cooperation between heterogeneous networking technologies and different protocols. Wireless personal networks are an integral part of such an emerging heterogeneous infrastructure. It is highly desirable, and in fact required due to economical constraints, to incorporate the present wireless systems in building the new paradigm. The key "protocol glue" between systems is the use of IP. Based on this scenario, we describe an architecture suited for the present and future personal mobile communications networks and services.     

Call control and traffic transport for connection-oriented highspeed wireless personal communications over metropolitan area networks

A distributed circuit-switched approach for supporting the deployment of high speed wireless personal communication services in urban areas through the interconnection of base stations via metropolitan area networks (MANs) is proposed. Broadband MANs minimize traffic congestion by dynamic sharing of link capacity and by serving as distributed switches for partitioning call control functions. While the DQDB protocol readily supports distributed packet-switching over the IEEE 802.6 MAN, isochronous traffic such as voice and video is best supported by circuit-switched connections. The authors present an enhanced bi-state pre-arbitrated (PA) transport mechanism, and associated call control and handoff management techniques, which enable distributed circuit-switching over the MAN. These capabilities are not currently addressed in the 802.6 standards. The bi-state PA transport mechanism facilitates statistical multiplexing of variable rate isochronous traffic sources. The network capacity is constrained by the call setup delay performance, and is analyzed by simulations. Alternative signaling architectures, involving different placements of call control network elements, are evaluated. The effects of erasure nodes, and close bus versus open bus architectures, are considered. The overlap inter-MAN call setup procedure is proposed to reduce delays. Different call handoff procedures are formulated according to the type of handoff and the resulting change in call connectivity. Most handoffs are intra-MAN, requiring simple procedures with short delays     

Home networking with IEEE 802.15.4: a developing standard for low-rate wireless personal area networks

This article presents the IEEE 802.15.4 draft standard and its home networking applications. The main features of the standard are network flexibility, low cost, and low power consumption; the standard is suitable for many applications in the home requiring low-data-rate communications in an ad hoc self-organizing network.