ICAM: integrated cellular and ad hoc multicast

In third generation (3G) wireless data networks, multicast throughput decreases with the increase in multicast group size, since a conservative strategy for the base station is to use the lowest data rate of all the receivers so that the receiver with the worst downlink channel condition can decode the transmission correctly. This paper proposes ICAM, integrated cellular and ad hoc multicast, to increase 3G multicast throughput through opportunistic use of ad hoc relays. In ICAM, a 3G base station delivers packets to proxy mobile devices with better 3G channel quality. The proxy then forwards the packets to the receivers through an IEEE 802.11-based ad hoc network. In this paper, we first propose a localized greedy algorithm that discovers for each multicast receiver the proxy with the highest 3G downlink channel rate. We discover that due to capacity limitations and interference of the ad hoc relay network, maximizing the 3G downlink data rate of each multicast receiver's proxy does not lead to maximum throughput for the multicast group. We then show that the optimal ICAM problem is NP-hard, and derive a polynomial-time 4-approximation algorithm for the construction of the multicast forest. This bound holds when the underlying wireless MAC supports broadcast or unicast, single rate or multiple rates (4(1 + /spl isin/) approximation scheme for the latter), and even when there are multiple simultaneous multicast sessions. Through both analysis and simulations, we show that our algorithms achieve throughput gains up to 840 percent for 3G downlink multicast with modest overhead on the 3G uplink.     

基于网络编码的无线多播速率选择机制

在无线多播通信系统中,每个接收节点与源节点(例如基站)之间的信道状态不相同。因此,过高或者过低的多播速率都会导致较大的传输延迟。而且,信道状态随节点运动而变化,仅仅基于当前信道状态信息(CSI)和接收节点已接收数据状态信息(DSI)的多播速率选择机制无法达到最优性能。该文根据节点CSI和DSI提出了一种基于信道预测多播速率选择算法(MDCP)来最小化传输延迟,并结合网络编码提高数据重传效率。仿真结果表明,与基于最差信道状态节点的多播速率选择算法和没有信道预测的基于最大延迟节点的多播速率选择算法相比,MDCP能够获得10%-20%延迟增益。     

Random algorithms for scheduling multicast traffic in WDMbroadcast-and-select networks

We develop and analyze simple algorithms for scheduling multicast traffic in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) broadcast-and-select networks with N nodes, W wavelengths, and a single receiver per node that can be tuned to any of the W wavelengths. Each message is addressed to κ randomly chosen nodes. Since optimal message scheduling in a WDM network is known to be very difficult, we study two simple scheduling schemes: in the first, a message is continuously retransmitted until it is received by all of its intended recipients; and in the second, a random delay is introduced between retransmissions of the same message. We develop a throughput analysis for both schemes using methods from discrete-time queueing systems and show that the algorithm with random delays between retransmissions results in higher throughput. We also consider a number of receiver algorithms for selecting among multiple simultaneous transmissions and show, through simulation, that an algorithm where the receiver selects the message with the least number of intended recipients performs better than a random selection algorithm. Finally, we show that channel utilization can be significantly increased with multiple receivers/node     

Modeling and analysis of TCP-like multicast congestion control in hybrid terrestrial/satellite IP networks

Given their broadcast nature, satellite communications are one natural engineering choice for multicast service deployment. In this paper, the throughput performance of transmission control protocol (TCP)-like multicast congestion control is analyzed in hybrid terrestrial/satellite networks. With this objective, an analytical framework based on Markov chains is introduced. The major advantage of the proposed analytical model is its scalability in that the number of states of the Markov chain modeling the system is independent of the number of receivers in the multicast session. This is a very important feature as simulation is unfeasible for large numbers of receivers. The framework is used to evaluate the impact of the long propagation delays, high bit-error rates, and channel asymmetry characterizing hybrid terrestrial/satellite communications. The performance results show that in certain cases, it is more convenient to divide the receivers in an appropriate number of groups and establish a different multicast session toward each of the above groups. Also, the convenience of an acknowledgment (ACK) flow reconstructor is shown.     

Optimal deterministic timeouts for reliable scalable multicast

Reliable multicast protocols suffer from the problem of feedback implosion. To avoid this problem, the number of receivers sending feedback in case of loss must be small. However, losses experienced by different receivers are strongly correlated, since receivers share common resources in the multicast tree. One approach to feedback implosion avoidance relies on delaying feedback at the receivers. We present deterministic timeouts for reliable multicast (DTRM), a distributed algorithm to compute optimal deterministic timeouts for each receiver in a multicast tree as a function of the tree topology and the sender-to-receiver round-trip delays. DTRM has several desirable properties. First, feedback implosion is provably avoided for a single loss anywhere in the tree, provided delay jitter is bounded. Second, the computation of the timeouts can be entirely distributed; receivers and intermediate nodes only rely on local topology information. Third, the timeouts computed by DTRM are optimal with respect to the maximum response time     

Adaptive Coding and Modulation for Multicast Transmission in Packet Radio Networks

A low-complexity protocol is described and evaluated for adaptation of the modulation and coding for multicast transmission in half-duplex packet radio networks. The adaptive multicast transmission protocol is designed to compensate for changes in propagation conditions that occur from packet to packet during a session with one sender and multiple receivers. The protocol relies on simple receiver statistics to obtain the control information for adapting the modulation and coding, and it also provides scheduling to avoid collisions among acknowledgments from the receivers. The throughput provided by the protocol is compared with performance results for hypothetical ideal adaptive multicast transmission protocols that are given perfect channel state information. We illustrate the importance of adaptive modulation and channel coding in systems that employ fountain coding for packet erasure correction.     

A multicast hybrid ARQ scheme using MDS codes and GMD decoding

An efficient multicast hybrid ARQ scheme is proposed by incorporating the generalized minimum distance (GRID) decoding of maximum distance separable (MDS) codes with Metzner's (1984) scheme. Erroneous frames are stored in the receiver buffer and recovered after receiving one or more redundant frames. The throughput and the average transmission delay of the proposed scheme are analyzed on memoryless symmetric channels. The proposed scheme can circumvent the degradation of the throughput due to an increase of the number of receivers, which is the most serious defect in the conventional multicast ARQ schemes, at the expense of the transmission delay     

A Simple and Efficient One‐to‐Many Large File Distribution Method Exploiting Asynchronous Joins

In this paper, we suggest a simple and efficient multiple‐forwarder‐based file distribution method which can work with a tree‐based application layer multicast. Existing multiple‐forwarder approaches require high control overhead. The proposed method exploits the assumption that receivers join a session at different times. In tree‐based application layer multicast, a set of data packets is delivered from its parent after a receiver has joined but before the next receiver joins without overlapping that of other receivers. The proposed method selects forwarders from among the preceding receivers and the forwarder forwards data packets from the non‐overlapping data packet set. Three variations of forwarder selection algorithms are proposed. The impact of the proposed algorithms is evaluated using numerical analysis. A performance evaluation using PlanetLab, a global area overlay testbed, shows that the proposed method enhances throughput while maintaining the data packet duplication ratio and control overhead significantly lower than the existing method, Bullet.     

Impact of TCP-like congestion control on the throughput of multicast groups

We study the impact of random queueing delays stemming from traffic variability on the performance of a multicast session. With a simple analytical model, we analyze the throughput degradation within a multicast (one-to-many) tree under TCP-like congestion and flow control. We use the (max,plus) formalism together with methods based on stochastic comparison (association and convex ordering) and on the theory of extremes to prove various properties of the throughput. We first prove that the throughput predicted by a deterministic model is systematically optimistic. In the presence of light-tailed random delays, we show that the throughput decreases according to the inverse of the logarithm of the number of receivers. We find analytically an upper and a lower bound for the throughput degradation. Within these bounds, we characterize the degradation which is obtained for various tree topologies. In particular, we observe that a class of trees commonly found in IP multicast sessions is significantly more sensitive to traffic variability than other topologies.     

Two hybrid ARQ algorithms for reliable multicast communications in UMTS networks

Multicast communications in wireless networks have attracted the interest of the scientific community, since many issues remain open. In this framework, our letter proposes two novel hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) algorithms for multicast communications in the UMTS radio link control (RLC) layer. The proposed algorithms exploit the channel autocorrelation in order to dynamically estimate the multicast users' channel conditions and thus reduce the mean service data unit (SDU) delay and increase the SDU throughput.     

Scheduling bursts in time-domain wavelength interleaved networks

A time-domain wavelength interleaved network (TWIN) (Widjaja, I. et al., IEEE Commun. Mag., vol.41, 2003) is an optical network with an ultrafast tunable laser and a fixed receiver at each node. We consider the problem of scheduling bursts of data in a TWIN. Due to the high data rates employed on the optical links, the burst transmissions typically last for very short times compared with the round trip propagation times between source-destination pairs. A good schedule should ensure that: 1) there are no transmit/receive conflicts; 2) propagation delays are observed; 3) throughput is maximized (schedule length is minimized). We formulate the scheduling problem with periodic demand as a generalization of the well-known crossbar switch scheduling. We prove that even in the presence of propagation delays, there exist a class of computationally viable scheduling algorithms which asymptotically achieve the maximum throughput obtainable without propagation delays. We also show that any schedule can be rearranged to achieve a factor-two approximation of the maximum throughput even without asymptotic limits. However, the delay/throughput performance of these schedules is limited in practice. We consequently propose a scheduling algorithm that exhibits near optimal (on average within /spl sim/7% of optimum) delay/throughput performance in realistic network examples.     

PROTON: a media access control protocol for optical networks withstar topology

A new multiple access protocol called PROTON (PROTocol for Optical Networks) is developed for optical local area networks based on a passive star topology. PROTON uses wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and is highly bandwidth-efficient. One of the available wavelengths is used as a control channel. Time is divided into fixed-sized slots. The size of the slots is the same for the control and the data channels. Before transmitting a packet, a station must compete with others for a slot in a data wavelength, using a collision-free procedure. Transmitting stations and the corresponding wavelengths for their data transmissions are determined at each station by a simple arbitration scheme. The protocol is suitable for networks where the number of users can be much larger than the number of available data channels. In addition to propagation delays, it is considered that transmitter and receiver tuning times as well as the times required to process control packets are not negligible. Whenever possible, and to maximize the throughput of the network, tuning and processing times of transmitters and receivers are overlapped with each other and with data transmission times. Also, data slot requests and packet transmissions are scheduled in a pipeline fashion, thus reducing the detrimental effects on throughput and packet delay of long propagation delays. The paper includes an analysis of the maximum throughput characteristics of PROTON. An analytical model is developed, and several performance measures are obtained     

A receiver synchronized slotted Aloha for underwater wireless networks with imprecise propagation delay information

In a wireless network, where propagation delay is high but known, slotted Aloha (S-Aloha) is synchronized with respect to the receiver’s time slots. Since the transmitter knows the propagation delay to its receiver, after a frame is generated, the transmitter introduces a suitable delay before its transmission, such that the frame arrives exactly in a slot at the receiver. However, in an underwater wireless network, due to significantly less signal propagation speed, the channel dynamics has a significant effect on the time dispersion of propagation speed. Due to this uncertainty in propagation speed, even if the transmitter–receiver distance is exactly known, it is likely that a perfect synchronization at the receiver is not possible.In this paper, we first show that, even a little-less-than-perfect synchronization at the receiver reduces the throughput of receiver synchronized S-Aloha (RSS-Aloha) to that of pure Aloha. We modify the RSS-Aloha for underwater by accommodating the error in delay estimate while deciding the receiver-end slot size. Via probabilistic analysis, supported by simulations, we show that our proposed modified protocol offers a gradual increase in throughput as the propagation delay uncertainty decreases. We also show that the throughput of our proposed modified protocol is consistently higher compared to the transmitter synchronized S-Aloha when operating under the same propagation delay uncertainty. However, when the uncertainty is high, delay performance of the modified RSS-Aloha remains poorer than that of the transmitter synchronized S-Aloha in a system with smaller nodal communication range.     

Error control using retransmission schemes in multicast transportprotocols for real-time media

We analyze different retransmission (ARQ) schemes for error control in multicast protocols geared toward real-time, multimedia applications. We discuss why retransmission schemes are not inappropriate for such applications, but in fact can be quite effective. We present a quantitative analysis of such schemes, as well as simulation results, taking into account four different parameters (and not just the source throughput): (1) the probability of dropping a packet due to limited time for retransmissions; (2) the average time required to deliver a packet correctly to end receivers; (3) the number of times a packet will be retransmitted; and (4) the cost to the network, in terms of packet duplications, of retransmitting a packet. We reach the counter-intuitive conclusion that the optimum scheme, in terms of all four of the above parameters, in the most general scenarios (where several hosts with widely varying propagation delays and `quality of connections' are participating in the session) is to immediately retransmit packets-preferably multicast-upon reception of a NACK from any receiver. We also demonstrate, again through quantitative analysis, the circumstances under which it would be beneficial (as well as those under which it would be counter-productive) to multicast control messages in the hope of suppressing duplicates and preventing the source from being overwhelmed by control messages     

Chip-to-chip driver and receiver circuits for a Josephson computer

Requirements for drivers and receivers in a Josephson computer are described for transmission of logic signals over long lines and through package connectors. A driver with noise protection and rise time control for smooth propagation through inductive discontinuities has been designed. The receiver design incorporates polarity discrimination for rejection of signals stored on a long line. Drivers and receivers were fabricated, polarity discrimination was demonstrated, and delays were measured and found to agree with simulations. Nominal driver-receiver delay is 160 ps.     

On multicast flow control for heterogeneous receivers

In this paper, we study the impact of heterogeneous receivers on the throughput of multicast flow control and propose a new multicast flow control algorithm to optimally partition group members into multiple subgroups. Our main contributions are as follows. First, we cast the multicast flow control problem in the Internet as the list partition problem and then prove that the list partition problem is equivalent to the optimal paging problem in cellular networks. The result is not only interesting in itself but also essential to derive the first known analytical bounds for the throughput of multicast flow control. Furthermore, we propose an algorithm to solve not only the list partition problem but also the optimal paging problem and the problem of bulk data transfer using multiple multicast groups. The complexity of our algorithm is one order less than the best known algorithm designed only for the problem of bulk data transfer using multiple multicast groups in the literature. While earlier work uses simulations to justify the usage of multiple subgroups to deliver information to a large amount of receivers in heterogeneous networks, we provide the first analytical support     

System aspects of smart-antenna technology in cellular wirelesscommunications-an overview

In this paper, we surveyed the three main system aspects of smart-antenna (SA) technology in wireless communications, i.e., SA receiver, wireless network control, and planning with SAs. A classification of SA receivers and their algorithms is given in order to simplify orientation in a very large amount of structures and algorithms. We discuss system integration of SA receivers, taking into consideration expected propagation conditions, user mobility, and offered traffic. Several radio network planning and upgrading concepts associated with SAs are evaluated. We describe possible radio networks architectures when SAs are used at the mobiles, base stations, or at both ends. Radio network control functions with SAs at different layers are briefly examined. Existing experimental and commercially available SAs and their performance are surveyed     

MAC Scheduling Using Channel State Diversity for High-Throughput IEEE 802.11 Mesh Networks

The head-of-line blocking problem impairs the throughput of the hotspot nodes in multihop wireless mesh networks. FIFO scheduling in the current IEEE 802.11 MAC suffers from this problem when the network is highly loaded. The problem may keep the sender in backoff stage up to 70 percent of the time, leading to significant throughput degradation. One solution is to increase the RTS success rate by extending the RTS frame to multicast RTS so that multiple receivers can be checked simultaneously. We present an adaptive learning process that constructs the receiver list based on the dynamic channel-state diversity of candidate receivers. Our variable-length channel-state-based scheduling scheme outperforms the basic MRTS by 20-60 percent.     

Joint scheduling and power control supporting multicasting in wireless ad hoc networks

This paper addresses the problem of power control in a multihop wireless network supporting multicast traffic. We face the problem of forwarding packet traffic to multicast group members while meeting constraints on the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at the intended receivers. First, we present a distributed algorithm which, given the set of multicast senders and their corresponding receivers, provides an optimal solution when it exists, which minimizes the total transmit power. When no optimal solution can be found for the given set of multicast senders and receivers, we introduce a distributed, joint scheduling and power control algorithm which eliminates the weak connections and tries to maximize the number of successful multicast transmissions. The algorithm allows the other senders to solve the power control problem and minimize the total transmit power. We show that our distributed algorithm converges to the optimal solution when it exists, and performs close to centralized, heuristic algorithms that have been proposed to address the joint scheduling and power control problem.