A novel QoS‐aware MAC protocol for voice services over IEEE 802.11‐based WLANs

With the pervasive growth in the popularity of IEEE 802.11‐based wireless local area networks (WLANs) worldwide, the demand to support delay‐sensitive services such as voice has increased very rapidly. This paper provides a comprehensive survey on the medium access control (MAC) architectures and quality of service (QoS) provisioning issues for WLANs. The major challenges in providing QoS to voice services through WLAN MAC protocols are outlined and the solution approaches proposed in the literature are reviewed. To this end, a novel QoS‐aware wireless MAC protocol, called hybrid contention‐free access (H‐CFA) protocol and a call admission control technique, called traffic stream admission control (TS‐AC) algorithm, are presented. The H‐CFA protocol is based on a novel idea that combines two contention‐free wireless medium access approaches, that is, round‐robin polling and time‐division multiple access (TDMA)‐like time slot assignment, and it increases the capacity of WLANs through efficient silence suppression. The TS‐AC algorithm ensures efficient admission control for consistent delay‐bound guarantees and further maximizes the capacity through exploiting the voice characteristic that it can tolerate some level of inconsecutive packet loss. The benefits of the proposed schemes are demonstrated in the simulations results. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Novel Effective Bandwidth Based Call Admission Control for Multimedia CDMA Systems

A novel Call Admission Control(CAC)scheme is proposed for multimedia CDMA systems.The effectivebandwidth of real time calls is reserved in the CAC with the consideration of active factors.The admission of non-real timecalls is controlled by the system according to the residual effective bandwidth left from real time calls.Simulation resultshave shown that the novel CAC has greatly enlarged the admission region for real time calls and make the transmission de-lay of non-real time calls under an acceptable level.     

Capacity Analysis for Connection Admission Control in Indoor Multimedia CDMA Wireless Communications

In this paper, the capacity analysis for connection admission control is presented for the reverse-link transmission of a packetized indoor multimedia wireless communication system using direct sequence code division multiple access (DS/CDMA). Since CDMA is interference limited, the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio criterion is used to check if there is enough system resources (i.e., the CDMA channels and received signal power) for each new connection request. Taking into account the stochastical nature of multimedia traffic, the effective bit rate is used to characterize the resources required by each mobile user and a linear approximation is then used to find the total resources required by all the mobile users already admitted to the system and the new connection request. Transmission errors due to both base station buffer overflow and wireless channel impairments are considered. The capacity of multimedia traffic is determined in such a way that the utilization of the system resources is maximized and, at the same time, the required transmission bit error rate and transmission delay of all users admitted to the system are guaranteed. Computer simulation results are given to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method for capacity analysis.     

Space‐time diversity‐enhanced QoS provisioning for real‐time service over MC‐DS‐CDMA based wireless networks

In order to support the quality‐of‐service (QoS) requirements for real‐time traffic over broadband wireless networks, advanced techniques such as space‐time diversity (STD) and multicarrier direct‐sequence code division multiple access (MC‐DS‐CDMA) are implemented at the physical layer. However, the employment of such techniques evidently affects the QoS provisioning algorithms at the medium access control (MAC) layer. In this paper, we propose a space‐time infrastructure and develop a set of cross‐layer real‐time QoS‐provisioning algorithms for admission control, scheduling, and subchannel‐allocations. We analytically map the parameters characterizing the STD onto the admission‐control region guaranteeing the real‐time QoS. Our analytical analyses show that the proposed algorithms can effectively support real‐time QoS provisioning. Also presented are numerical solutions and simulation results showing that the STD can significantly improve the QoS provisioning for real‐time services over wireless networks. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Real‐Time Algorithm for Timeslot Assignment in ISM System with DVB‐RCS

This paper considers a timeslot assignment problem in an interactive satellite multimedia (ISM) system with digital video broadcast‐return channel via satellite (DVB‐RCS). The timeslot assignment problem is formulated as a binary integer programming to maximize the overall weighted throughput and is shown to be NP‐hard. Thus, three real‐time heuristic algorithms including ratio‐based, packet‐size (PS)‐based, and transmission gain (TG)‐based are derived, and some computational experiments are made. Considering the results, the ratio‐based heuristic algorithm is demonstrated to be the most effective and efficient. We propose adapting the ratio‐based heuristic algorithm to the timeslot assignment problem to greatly improve the ISM system utilization.     

Hardware‐Aware Rate Monotonic Scheduling Algorithm for Embedded Multimedia Systems

Many embedded multimedia systems employ special hardware blocks to co‐process with the main processor. Even though an efficient handling of such hardware blocks is critical on the overall performance of real‐time multimedia systems, traditional real‐time scheduling techniques cannot afford to guarantee a high quality of multimedia playbacks with neither delay nor jerking. This paper presents a hardware‐aware rate monotonic scheduling (HA‐RMS) algorithm to manage hardware tasks efficiently and handle special hardware blocks in the embedded multimedia system. The HA‐RMS prioritizes the hardware tasks over software tasks not only to increase the hardware utilization of the system but also to reduce the output jitter of multimedia applications, which results in reducing the overall response time.     

Sensible: IP‐layer dynamic bandwidth management for DVB‐RCS network subdomains

Broadband communication via satellite systems finds applications in several contexts where other technologies are not available or economically not convenient. Examples are remote areas, disaster struck areas, or vessels/ships. The scarce availability and the high cost of the bandwidth impose to improve flexibility in bandwidth management and dynamic allocation, especially on the shared return link. Typically, this capability is available only to the satellite operator (SO). An innovative dynamic bandwidth management of satellite capacity for the return link has been developed and prototyped as an Internet protocol‐based solution. This solution allows small operators renting bandwidth from the satellite operator and providing services to final customers, managing the permanently assigned resources in a flexible and efficient way. The scope of the paper is to illustrate this technique to achieve the dynamic bandwidth management for a subgroup of satellite terminals (subdomain) by using a centralized controller and distributed software with IP shaping capabilities, without interacting with the satellite operator. This approach has been applied in particular to a satellite maritime ship owner, which is thus able to dynamically distribute capacity among satellite terminals installed onboard of its ship fleet as required, as a network operator. The presented results are the outputs of simulations performed with the NS2 simulator and tests by using real hardware. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rain granularity effects on bandwidth demand for faded DVB‐RCS systems

Broadband satellite communication networks, operating at Ka band and above, play a vital role in today's worldwide telecommunication infrastructure. The problem, however, is that rain can be the most dominant impairment factor for radio propagation above 10 GHz. This paper studies bandwidth and time slot allocation problem for rain faded DVB‐RCS satellite networks. We investigate how using finer rain granularity can improve bandwidth utilization in DVB‐RCS return links. The paper presents a mathematical model to calculate the bandwidth on demand. We formulate the radio resource allocation as an optimization problem and propose a novel algorithm for dynamic carrier bandwidth and time slots allocation, which works with constant bit rate type of traffic. We provide theoretical analysis for the time slot allocation problem and show that the proposed algorithm achieves optimal results. The algorithm is evaluated using a MATLAB simulation with historical rain data for the UK. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evolution of satellite communications: Integration of ETSI BSM and DVB‐RCS for future satellite terminals

The main added value of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute broadband satellite multimedia (ETSI BSM) architecture is the definition of the Satellite Independent‐Service Access Point (SI‐SAP) protocol interface, which formally separates Satellite Dependent (SD) from SI layers, thus enabling the implementation of powerful vertical QoS mapping strategies. On the other hand, DVB‐S2/RCS satellite standard is considered the driving technology to integrate satellite with terrestrial infrastructure and provide up‐to‐date services. This paper focuses on the integration of ETSI BSM architecture and DVB‐RCS technology, by analysing the adaptations needed on real DVB‐RCS terminals to be interoperable with the SI‐SAP interface. To this end, the detailed design of an underlying architecture taking into account required adaptations and new functionalities is proposed. The possible further evolutions of the BSM specification are also highlighted, showing the potential for the development of future devices integrating both DVB‐RCS and ETSI BSM architectures also in view of the recent upgrade to the DVB‐RCS2 standard. The paper also validates the SI‐SAP QoS functionalities and proves the performance benefits in terms of QoS and quality of experience of Web‐browsing by means of a satellite emulator developed fors this aim. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Scalable Network Architecture for Flow‐Based Traffic Control

Many control schemes have been proposed for flow‐level traffic control. However, flow‐level traffic control is implemented only in limited areas such as traffic monitoring and traffic control at edge nodes. No clear solution for end‐to‐end architecture has been proposed. Scalability and the lack of a business model are major problems for deploying end‐to‐end flow‐level control architecture. This paper introduces an end‐to‐end transport architecture and a scalable control mechanism to support the various flow‐level QoS requests from applications.     

Estimation‐Based Load‐Balancing with Admission Control for Cluster Web Servers

The growth of the World Wide Web and web‐based applications is creating demand for high performance web servers to offer better throughput and shorter user‐perceived latency. This demand leads to widely used cluster‐based web servers in the Internet infrastructure. Load balancing algorithms play an important role in boosting the performance of cluster web servers. Previous load balancing algorithms suffer a significant performance drop under dynamic and database‐driven workloads. We propose an estimation‐based load balancing algorithm with admission control for cluster‐based web servers. Because it is difficult to accurately determine the load of web servers, we propose an approximate policy. The algorithm classifies requests based on their service times and tracks the number of outstanding requests from each class in each web server node to dynamically estimate each web server load state. The available capacity of each web server is then computed and used for the load balancing and admission control decisions. The implementation results confirm that the proposed scheme improves both the mean response time and the throughput of clusters compared to rival load balancing algorithms and prevents clusters being overloaded even when request rates are beyond the cluster capacity.     

QoS‐aware routing and power control algorithm for multimedia service over multi‐hop mobile ad hoc network

This paper presents a QoS (quality of service) aware routing and power control algorithm consuming low transmission power for multimedia service over mobile ad hoc network. Generally, multimedia services need stringent QoS over the network. However, it is not easy to guarantee the QoS over mobile ad hoc network since its network resources are very limited and time‐varying. Furthermore, only a limited amount of power is available at mobile nodes, which makes the problem more challenging. We propose an effective routing and power control algorithm for multimedia services that satisfies end‐to‐end delay constraint with low transmission power consumption. The proposed algorithm supports the required bandwidth by controlling each link channel quality over route in a tolerable range. In addition, a simple but effective route maintenance mechanism is implemented to avoid link failures that may significantly degrade streaming video quality. Finally, performance comparison with existing algorithms is presented in respect to traditional routing performance metrics, and an achievable video quality comparison is provided to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed algorithm for multimedia services over mobile ad hoc network. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

QoS provisioning for multiple non‐real‐time services in cellular wireless networks

Future mobile services are expected to include various non‐voice oriented services. One important category of non‐voice oriented mobile services is non‐real‐time services. When a mobile user establishes a connection to access non‐real‐time service, the mobile user usually cares about whether the total time to complete its data transfer is within its time tolerance. In addition, different mobile users may have different bandwidth requirements and different tolerances in the total completion time. It is essential for wireless systems to provide various mobile users with different total completion times. In this paper, two quality‐of‐service (QoS) metrics, called stretch ratio and eligibility percentage, are employed at a connection level to present the degree of the length of the total completion time. We devise a measurement based call admission control scheme that provides multiple QoSs for various mobile users which have different requirements of stretch ratios, eligibility percentages, and bandwidths. Extensive simulation results show that the measurement based call admission control scheme not only provides various satisfactory QoSs for mobile users but also produces high throughput. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Broadcasting and Communication Convergent Network Based on MPEG‐21: Design and Implementation of Multimedia Service Framework

In this paper, we present a practical implementation of the MPEG‐21 multimedia framework for broadcasting and communication convergent services. MPEG‐21 standard technology was exploited to build a convergent service framework. Using this framework, a service model and several scenarios have been successfully designed and implemented. In addition, interoperability, which is the main objective of a multimedia framework, especially in a convergent environment consisting of heterogeneous networks and various types of devices, has been addressed in detail. The experimental results show that the implemented test bed provides a next‐generation multimedia service; that is, universal multimedia access (UMA), meeting the requirements of a broadcasting and communication convergent environment.     

Admission control and handover management for high‐speed trains in vehicular geostationary satellite networks with terrestrial gap‐filling

Following a recent upgrade, the Digital Video Broadcasting—Return Channel Satellite (DVB‐RCS) standard sets up to support terminal mobility. In this scenario, integration with terrestrial systems becomes a primary concern to ensure network connectivity in urban areas. This article proposes an integrated satellite–terrestrial architecture for the provision of broadband services onboard high‐speed trains, in which terrestrial cellular networks are seen as viable gap‐fillers for discontinuous satellite coverage. We derive an analytical model of the hybrid DVB‐RCS‐cellular system by exploiting analogies between the mobility pattern predictability of LEO constellations and that of high‐speed trains. Terminals whose QoS cannot be guaranteed by the satellite segment are proposed to temporarily divert the connections towards the terrestrial infrastructure, where available. Using an iterative approach based on the Erlang fixed‐point approximation, we show performance improvements with respect to stand‐alone satellite systems in terms of handover failure probability and overall resource utilization. The analytical model is also validated via our ns2‐based DVB‐RCS packet‐level simulator. Detailed modelling of synchronization and signalling mechanisms confirms the accuracy of the analytical results, and shows that topology and mobility information can contribute to refine radio resource utilization optimality when used jointly. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bandwidth borrowing‐based QoS approach for adaptive call admission control in multiclass traffic wireless cellular networks

This paper proposes a QoS approach for an adaptive call admission control (CAC) scheme for multiclass service wireless cellular networks. The QoS of the proposed CAC scheme is achieved through call bandwidth borrowing and call preemption techniques according to the priorities of the traffic classes, using complete sharing of the available bandwidth. The CAC scheme maintains QoS in each class to avoid performance deterioration through mechanisms for call bandwidth degradation, and call bandwidth upgrading based on min–max and max–min policies for fair resource deallocation and reallocation, respectively. The proposed adaptive CAC scheme utilizes a measurement‐based online monitoring approach of the system performance, and a prediction model to determine the amount of bandwidth to be borrowed from calls, or the amount of bandwidth to be returned to calls. The simulation‐based performance evaluation of the proposed adaptive CAC scheme shows the strength and effectiveness of our proposed scheme. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Securing RTP Packets Using Per‐Packet Key Exchange for Real‐Time Multimedia

For secure multimedia communications, existing encryption techniques use an online session key for the key exchange, for which key size is limited to less than 10 digits to accommodate the latency condition caused by user devices only being able to handle low computational loads. This condition results in poor security of recorded encrypted data. In this letter, we propose a packet key scheme that encrypts real‐time packets using a different key per packet for multimedia applications. Therefore, a key of a relatively small size can provide after‐transmission confidentiality to data of a real‐time session.     

An integrated routing and admission control mechanism for real‐time multicast connection establishment

There are two major difficulties in real‐time multicast connection setup. One is the design of an efficient distributed routing algorithm which optimizes the network cost of routing trees under the real‐time constraints. The other is the integration of routing with admission control into one single phase of operations. This paper presents a real‐time multicast connection setup mechanism, which integrates multicast routing with real‐time admission control. The proposed mechanism performs the real‐time admission tests on a cost optimal tree (COT) and a shortest path tree (SPT) in parallel, aiming at optimizing network cost of the routing tree under real‐time constraints. It has the following important features: (1) it is fully distributed; (2) it achieves sub‐optimal network cost of routing trees; (3) it takes less time and less network messages for a connection setup. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

QoS‐based radio network dimensioning for LTE networks with heavy real‐time traffic

Applications of video streaming and real‐time gaming, which generate large amounts of real‐time traffic in the network, are expected to gain considerable popularity in Long Term Evolution networks. Maintaining the QoS such as packet delay, packet loss ratio, median, and cell border throughput requirements in networks dominated by real time traffic, is critical. The existing dimensioning methodology does not consider QoS parameters of real‐time traffic in network dimensioning. Moreover, exhaustive and time‐consuming simulations are normally required to evaluate the performance and QoS of real‐time services. To overcome this problem, we propose an improved radio network dimensioning framework that considers the QoS of real‐time traffic in network dimensioning. In this framework, an analytical model is proposed to evaluate the capacity and performance of real‐time traffic dominant Long Term Evolution networks. The proposed framework provides a fast and accurate means of finding the trade‐off between system load, packet delay, packet loss ratio, required median, and cell border throughput. It also provides network operators with an analytical means for obtaining the minimum number of sites required by jointly considering coverage, capacity and QoS requirements. The accuracy of the proposed model is validated through simulations. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.