Frequency-hop packet radio networks with coding and retransmission backoff

A fully connected frequency-hop packet radio network is considered. Four packet-combining techniques are presented, which significantly reduce the packet-error rate. An analytical model is used to offer insight into how system dynamics are affected by the error-control method and retransmission backoff policy. It is shown that enhancing the error-control method increases the maximum throughput of the network and alleviates the stability problem, but does not solve the problem. On the other hand, a good choice of retransmission backoff policy solves the stability problem, but does not alter the maximum throughput. These results suggest that in order to construct a stable network with large throughput, a good error-control method and retransmission backoff policy are both necessary.     

Routing in frequency-hop packet radio networks with partial-bandjamming

Research in adaptive, decentralized routing for frequency-hop packet radio networks with mobile partial-band jamming. A routing technique called least-resistance routing (LRR) is developed, and various versions of this routing method are examined. LRR uses a quantitative assessment of the interference environment experienced by a radio's receiver to determine a resistance value for that radio. Two components for the interference environment are considered: transmissions from other radios and partial-band jamming. The resistances for each of the radios in a particular path are combined to form the path resistance, and packets are forwarded on the path with the smallest resistance. Comparisons are made between different versions of LRR and between LRR and previously developed adaptive routing techniques. It is found that LRR is an effective way for dealing with mobile jamming in a frequency-hop packet radio network. Significant increases in throughput and end-to-end probability of success are obtained with LRR     

Hermitian codes for frequency-hop spread-spectrum packet radio networks

Hermitian codes are an attractive alternative to Reed-Solomon codes for use in frequency-hop spread-spectrum packet radio networks. For a given alphabet size, a Hermitian code has a much longer block length than a Reed-Solomon code. This and other considerations suggest that Hermitian codes may be superior for certain applications. Analytical results are developed for the evaluation of the packet error probability for frequency-hop transmissions using Hermitian coding. We find there are several situations for which Hermitian codes provide much lower packet error probabilities than can be obtained with Reed-Solomon codes. In general, as the code rate decreases or the symbol alphabet size increases, the relative performance of Hermitian codes improves with respect to Reed-Solomon codes. Performance evaluations are presented for an additive white Gaussian noise channel and for certain partial-band interference channels, and the packet error probability is evaluated for both errors-only and errors-and-erasures decoding.     

Multiple-packet forwarding protocols for frequency-hop packet radio networks

Reliable data distribution within multiple-hop spread-spectrum packet radio networks requires high performance from the network protocols. The high variability in quality among the links and the unique characteristics of frequency-hop spread-spectrum signaling impose special requirements for network protocols that are to be employed in frequency-hop packet radio networks. These features can be exploited in the forwarding protocols by allowing multiple packets to be included in each forwarding attempt. The use of multiple-packet transmissions exploits the capture property of frequency-hop signaling, and it reduces the overhead required for acknowledgments. A potential trade-off arises because the use of multiple-packet transmissions increases the throughput, but in some situations it can also increase the delay. Two new transmission protocols that employ multiple-packet transmissions are described, and their performance is evaluated.     

Coding and stability in frequency-hop packet radio networks

A fully connected radio network is considered in which packets are sent using slow frequency-hop (FH) modulation, slotted ALOHA random access, and Reed-Solomon (RS) error-control coding. For this network, the dependence of throughput, delay, and drift on the code rate and block length is examined. It is shown that the drift approaches a simple limiting form as the block length becomes large. This form suggests that, in a bistable FH network, the undesirable stable point can usually be eliminated without increasing the delay or reducing the throughput at the desirable stable point. In particular, bistability can be eliminated by increasing the code block length and retransmission delay, and does not require the use of decentralized control or channel traffic estimates     

Staggered interleaving and iterative errors- and-erasures decoding for frequency-hop packet radio

Information about the reliabilities; of the received symbols is very beneficial in frequency-hop communication systems. This information, known as side information, can be used to erase unreliable symbols at the input to an errors-and-erasures decoder. For slow-frequency-hop systems it is common that special redundant symbols, referred to as side-information symbols, are included in each dwell interval, and the demodulation of these symbols provides the side information. The corresponding decrease in the number of message symbols that can be sent in each dwell interval makes it desirable to develop alternative methods that do not require side-information symbols. In this paper, one such alternative is proposed, and its performance is evaluated for channels with partial-band interference. It is shown that staggered interleaving of Reed-Solomon code words and iterative errors-and-erasures decoding facilitates the erasure of unreliable symbols without the need for side-information symbols. The performance of this method is compared with the performance of systems that employ standard block interleaving and errors-only decoding or errors-and-erasures decoding with side information obtained from test symbols.     

Energy-based interference analysis of heterogeneous packet radio networks

While the use of radio technology for wireless data communications has increased rapidly, the wide variety of radio interfaces being used has made interference investigations hard to perform. With that in mind, we present a novel approach for analyzing packet radio communications, applicable to interfering heterogeneous networks, which leads to tractable analytical expressions. The core of the approach is an analytical framework modeling each network with individual properties for the packet types and the channel sets used, while taking path loss between all network nodes into account. Furthermore, we present a derivation of closed-form expressions for the throughput of the networks, thus allowing for the investigation of important mechanisms limiting network and system performance. The expressions enable fast and flexible analysis to be performed without extensive computer simulations or measurement campaigns. To illustrate the use of the framework and the strength of the closed-form expressions, we analyze a heterogeneous example system consisting of one IEEE 802.11b network and multiple Bluetooth networks that use multiple packet types. In the analysis, we also take the adjacent channel interference into account when calculating network throughput as functions of the number of interferers in the system.     

Modeling and performance analysis of multihop packet radio networks

The design of packet radio networks involves a large number of issues which interact in a very complex fashion. Many of these pertain to the RF channel and its use, others pertain to the operational protocols. Clearly, no single model can be formulated which incorporates all the necessary parameters and leads to the optimum solution. The one essential element which complicates matters is that, contrary to point-to-point networks in which each channel is utilized by a single pair of nodes, the radio channel in packet radio networks is a multiaccess broadcast resource: i) in a given locality determined by radio connectivity, the channel is shared by many contending users, hence the need for channel access protocols; ii) radio is a broadcast medium and thus the action taken by a node has an effect on the actions taken by neighboring nodes and their outcome. Despite the complexity of the problem, there has been significant progress worth reporting on. The work accomplished so far has been either the analysis of specific examples of networks or an attempt to create models that would be useful in the design of general networks. The purpose of this paper is to survey the various modeling techniques that have been used for the performance analysis of packet radio networks, and to discuss the assumptions underlying these models, their scope of applicability, and some of the results obtained.     

Performance analysis of cognitive radio networks with generalized call holding time distribution of secondary user

In cognitive radio networks (CRNs), spectrum handoff probability and expected number of spectrum handoffs are important parameters in the evaluation of network performance and design. This paper presents an analytical model for spectrum handoff probability and spectrum handoff rate for CRNs under general distribution of call holding time of secondary users (SUs). The standardized analytical forms of spectrum handoff probability and handoff rate of secondary network under negotiated scenario are derived for a complete service call duration. The effect of mobility parameters: departure rate of SUs (\(\upmu )\) and departure rate of spectrum holes (\(\uplambda )\) on spectrum handoff are also reported in this paper. Extensive results for all the proposed analytical models are obtained and presented in this paper. Analytical results show that exponential and Erlangian distribution functions are not suitable for call holding time of SU in the analysis of spectrum handoff in CRNs. Moreover, the superiority of lognormal distribution function ascertains its use for call holding time of SU in spectrum handoff estimation for better CRN performances. The Monte-Carlo simulation is also performed for spectrum handoff probability to validate the analytical model.     

Mobile packet radio networks: State-of-the-art

MUCH WORK HAS been done in the areas of packet switching, packet radio, and random communication channels. However, efforts combining these areas are not as plentiful. There are several reasons for this. One reason is, the packet communications area is relatively young. Much of the research into packet communications has been accomplished by computer scientists rather then communications engineers, with a resulting emphasis on architecture, protocols, software, and so on. Even the development of packet radio has not fostered extensive examination of link effects on system performances. The UHF line-of-sight links and SHF satellite links have been assumed to be perfect with packet collisions as the dominant error source, which is a good assumption under normal circumstances. However, abnormal circumstances including ionospheric scintillations and multipath fading are another source of error on degraded packet radio links, which characterize Mobile Packet Radio Networks (MPRNET). In this paper we define and discuss Mobile Packet Radio Networks and presend their channel characteristics. The performance avaluation of some channel access protocols for a Mobile Packet Radio Network link, which is a typical example of a degraded packet radio channel, is descirbed.     

Performance analysis of exponential backoff

New analytical results are given for the performance of the exponential backoff (EB) algorithm. Most available studies on EB focus on the stability of the algorithm and little attention has been paid to the performance analysis of EB. In this paper, we analyze EB and obtain saturation throughput and medium access delay of a packet for a given number of nodes N. The analysis considers the general case of EB with backoff factor r; binary exponential backoff (BEB) algorithm is the special case with r=2. We also derive the analytical performance of EB with maximum retry limit M (EB-M), a practical version of EB. The accuracy of the analysis is checked against simulation results.     

High throughput slotted ALOHA packet radio networks with adaptivearrays

The authors consider the use of a multiple-beam adaptive array (MBAA) in a packet radio system. In an MBAA, a given set of antenna elements is used to form several antenna patterns simultaneously. When it is used in a packet radio system, an MBAA can successfully receive two or more overlapping packets at the same time. Each beam captures a different packet by automatically pointing its pattern toward one packet while nulling other, contending packets. It is shown how an MBAA can be integrated into a single-hop slotted ALOHA packet radio system, and the resulting throughput is analyzed for both finite- and infinite-user populations     

Slotted ALOHA multihop packet radio networks with directional antennas

The use of directional antennas in multihop packet radio networks using slotted ALOHA access is considered. Tractable approximations to the network performance in terms of expected forward progress are derived. Results show that packet collisions can be strongly reduced already with moderate gain antennas to allow for a substantial increase in network performance.<>     

Network protocols for frequency-hop packet radios with decoder sideinformation

Reliable data distribution within spread-spectrum packet radio networks requires high performance from the network protocols. This paper describes research in forwarding and routing protocols that are designed specifically for slow-frequency hop (SFH) packet radio networks in which some of the radios are subjected to excessive interference. It is shown that information extracted from the decoder can be used to aid the network protocols. New metrics are introduced that use this information to give a quantitative assessment of the interference environment experienced by the receiver in an SFH radio. Forwarding protocols are developed that can react quickly to local sources of interference, and the metrics that are introduced permit the routing algorithm to react to changes in the interference conditions in the network     

Spatial reuse in multihop packet radio networks

Multihop packet radio networks present many challenging problems to the network analyst and designer. The communication channel, which must be shared by all of the network users, is the critical system resource. In order to make efficient use of this shared resource, a variety of channel access protocols to promote organized sharing have been investigated. Sharing can occur in three domains: frequency, time, and space. This paper is mostly concerned with sharing and channel reuse in the spatial domain. A survey of results on approaches to topological design and associated channel access protocols that attempt to optimize system performance by spatial reuse of the communication channel is presented.     

Topology control for multihop packet radio networks

A distributed topology-control algorithm has been developed for each node in a packet radio network (PRN) to control its transmitting power and logical neighbors for a reliable high-throughput topology. The algorithm first constructs a planar triangulation from locations of all nodes as a starting topology. Then, the minimum angles of all triangles in the planar triangulation are maximized by means of edge switching to improve connectivity and throughput. The resulting triangulation at this stage, the Delaunay triangulation, can be determined locally at each node. The topology is modified by negotiating among neighbors to satisfy a design requirement on the nodal degree parameter. Simulations show that the final topology is degree-bounded, has a rather regular and uniform structure, and has throughput and reliability that are greater than that of a number of alternative topologies     

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.     

TDM policies in multistation packet radio networks

A multistation packet radio network with m stations and a finite number of nodes n that uses a conflict-free protocol to access the backbone network of stations through a shared channel is discussed. The goal is to derive an allocation of the channel time slots (time-division multiplexing cycle), so that all transmissions will be conflict-free and some measure of performance (e.g., the expected total weighted throughput, the expected weighted holding cost) will be optimized. The methodology that is used is to bound the performance and to allocate the slots according to the golden ratio policy     

Capture models for mobile packet radio networks

The probability q_i of successful reception in a nonfading mobile radio channel with i contending mobiles transmitting to a central base station is studied for a number of different capture and spatial distribution models. It is shown that a generalized capture model can be used to estimate q_i's for a simplified example system which uses noncoherent frequency shift keying modulation. This model can be applied to other systems as well. An example of the use of the q_i 's in the throughput evaluation of a finite population slotted ALOHA system is given. In most practical systems, the mobiles cannot get arbitrarily close to the base station. The effect of this constraint on q_i is examined. Finally, the dependence of the capture probability for a test mobile on its distance from the base station is obtained     

Information efficiency of multihop packet radio networks with channel-adaptive routing

This paper analyzes the benefit of adaptive routing based on knowledge of the channel state information in multihop, ad hoc wireless networks that use direct-sequence code-division multiple access. Cross-layer, channel-adaptive routing exploits the inherent spatial diversity of multihop wireless networks to select links with favorable channel conditions. The information efficiency, an extension of a previously used measure called expected progress, is used to evaluate performance. Results show that, combined with adaptive modulation, adaptive routing can improve performance in ad hoc networks by a factor of four to five in channels with Rayleigh fading and lognormal shadowing. The lack of position information in the routing decision would reduce performance by 25%. New approaches to channel-adaptive routing that enable rapid adaptivity to channel conditions are discussed.