Estimation of packet losses due to propagation impairments: Application to TCP performance over satellite

The transmission control protocol (TCP) is widely used to provide reliable data transmission due to its congestion and flow control mechanisms that provide reliable error recovery in higher layers. In satellite links, various atmospheric phenomena may lead to high packet loss rate (PLR) degrading the TCP throughput. Modern satellite systems operate at frequencies above 10 GHz, where rainfall is the dominant fading mechanism leading to high bit error ratio and correlated packet losses. In this paper, a mathematical analysis is presented to accurately describe the statistical properties of the packet‐error process in a dynamically varying satellite channel. The proposed method is extended to provide PLR estimations when block forward error correction (FEC) is employed. A new Markov‐based method, based on the previous analysis and adapted to the rain‐faded satellite channel, is also presented for the estimation of TCP SACK throughput and tested against simulation results. Based on the information provided by the packet‐error model, a study between the TCP performance under various FEC schemes and a proposed adaptive FEC scheme has provided indications about the superiority of the proposed model. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

相关衰落信道下的一种层间联合自适应SR-ARQ传输机制

传统自适应传输机制在相关慢衰落信道下有较差的系统性能.针对相关衰落信道,提出了一种层间联合自适应传输机制.利用有限状态马尔可夫链来描述相关衰落信道,同时通过构建一个多状态马尔可夫系统模型来分析系统吞吐性能,并对调制方式和传输分组大小进行优化.另外,推导了系统平均吞吐性能的表达式.仿真结果显示所提出的自适应传输机制在相关衰落信道上能获得更好的系统性能.     

Throughput Analysis of DS CDMA/Unslotted ALOHA Wireless Networks with Fixed Packet Length in Rayleigh Fading Finite-State Markov Channel Model

We propose the finite-state Markov channel (FSMC) model to the throughput analysis of DS CDMA/unslotted ALOHA wireless networks in the mobile environment. The FSMC model can characterize the correlation structure of Rayleigh fading process, and the degree of correlation depends on the Doppler frequency shift. The FSMC model is suited to the throughput analysis by queueing theory due to its Markov chain nature. The previous papers in DS CDMA/unslotted ALOHA wireless networks in Rayleigh fading consider a whole packet. They ignore that the channel gain or multiple access interference can change symbol-to-symbol. In our proposed analysis, both the channel gain and multiple access interference can change from symbol to symbol. It is not just a packet-level analysis in the previous papers, and is a more general symbol-level analysis. Our generalized scheme should be more suited to realistic Rayleigh fading in the mobile environment. We consider two cases: (1) the system without carrier load sensing protocol (CLSP) and (2) systems with CLSP. For both cases, we analyze the theoretical throughput by queueing theory for various averaged signal-to-noise ratios and Doppler frequency shifts, and the computer simulated throughput matches the theoretical throughput.     

时变信道中自适应VR-HARQ研究

为了更好地解决时变信道中可靠性与吞吐率这一对矛盾,本文提出一种基于线性预测的自适应冗余可变混合ARQ(VR-HARQ)方案.在该方案中,由于时变信道的慢衰落特性,时变信道被等效为有限状态的Markov过程,每个Markov状态对应信道的不同信噪比,同时,文章详细地描述了信道吞吐率与误码率之间的数学关系,推导了每个Markov状态的最佳编码方案,然后系统采用自适应线性预测算法,根据当前个时段的信道状态,估计下一个时段信道的信噪比以及其所对应的Markov状态,最后根据吞吐率最大原则选择合适的纠错编码方案.仿真结果表明:自适应线性预测VR-HARQ方案的性能明显优于传统VR-HARQ方案.     

TCP with delayed ack for wireless networks

This paper studies the TCP performance with delayed ack in wireless networks (including ad hoc and WLANs) which use IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol as the underlying medium access control. Our analysis and simulations show that TCP throughput does not always benefit from an unrestricted delay policy. In fact, for a given topology and flow pattern, there exists an optimal delay window size at the receiver that produces best TCP throughput. If the window is set too small, the receiver generates too many acks and causes channel contention; on the other hand, if the window is set too high, the bursty transmission at the sender triggered by large cumulative acks will induce interference and packet losses, thus degrading the throughout. In wireless networks, packet losses are also related to the length of TCP path; when traveling through a longer path, a packet is more likely to suffer interference. Therefore, path length is an important factor to consider when choosing appropriate delay window sizes. In this paper, we first propose an adaptive delayed ack mechanism which is suitable for ad hoc networks, then we propose a more general adaptive delayed ack scheme for ad hoc and hybrid networks. The simulation results show that our schemes can effectively improve TCP throughput by up to 25% in static networks, and provide more significant gain in mobile networks. The proposed schemes are simple and easy to deploy. The real testbed experiments are also presented to verify our approaches. Furthermore, a simple and effective receiver-side probe and detection is proposed to improve friendliness between the standard TCP and our proposed TCP with adaptive delayed ack.     

Hybrid ARQ with selective combining for fading channels

We propose and analyze a hybrid automatic repeat request (ARQ) with a selective combining scheme using rate-compatible punctured convolutional (RCPC) codes for fading channels. A finite-state Markov channel model is used to represent the Rayleigh fading channels. We show that the hybrid ARQ with selective combining yields better performance than the generalized type-II ARQ scheme for fading channels. Furthermore, simulation results of real-time video time division multiple access (TDMA) transmission system are given. Better video quality can be obtained by our proposed scheme, with a bounded delay. Analytical results of throughput and packet error rate (PER) are compared to the simulated results. Our analysis based on a finite-state Markov channel model, is shown to give good agreement with simulations     

Comprehensive performance analysis of a TCP session over a wireless fading link with queueing

A link model-driven approach toward transmission control protocol (TCP) performance over a wireless link is presented. TCP packet loss behavior is derived from an underlying two-state continuous time Markov model. The approach presented here is (to our knowledge) the first that simultaneously considers (1) variability of the round-trip delay due to buffer queueing; (2) independent and nonindependent (bursty) link errors; (3) TCP packet loss due to both buffer overflow and channel errors; and (4) the two modes of TCP packet loss detection (duplicate acknowledgments and timeouts). The analytical results are validated against simulations using the ns-2 simulator for a wide range of parameters; slow and fast fading links; small and large link bandwidth-delay products. For channels with memory, an empirical rule is presented for categorizing the impact of channel dynamics (fading rate) on TCP performance.     

Statistical decision making in adaptive modulation and coding for 3G wireless systems

In this paper, we address the application of adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) for 3rd-generation (3G) wireless systems. We propose a new method for selecting the appropriate modulation and coding schemes (MCS) according to the estimated channel condition. In this method, we take a statistical decision making approach to maximize the average throughput while maintaining an acceptable frame error rate (FER). We use a first order finite state Markov model to approximate the time variations of the average channel signal to noise ratio (SNR) in subsequent frames. The MCS is selected in each state of this Markov model (among the choices proposed in the 3G standards proposals) to maximize the statistical average of the throughput in that state. Using this decision making approach, we also propose a simplified Markov model with fewer parameters, which is suitable in systems where changes in the fading characteristics need to be accounted for in an adaptive fashion. Numerical results are presented showing that both of our models substantially outperform the conventional techniques that use a memoryless threshold based decision making.     

基于模糊逻辑的无线网络流量自适应控制

文章在分析现有提高无线TCP性能方案的基础上，提出一种新的流量控制方法，即基于显式窗口反馈的无线网络流量控制方案。在Snoop中引入有线网络的显示窗口自适应（EWA）算法，通过对BS共享缓存的实时监测，应用模糊控制算法预测当前拥塞窗口（cwnd）的大小，并显式反馈给发送端，使TCP的发送窗口能快速响应网络负荷状况的变化．避免分组的丢失。仿真结果表明．该方法增强了网络对拥塞的自适应性以及对无线信道差错的实时处理能力．提高了网络的吞吐量。     

A wireless ATM MAC protocol with combined hybrid ARQ and adaptive scheduling with analysis

A combined hybrid automatic repeat request (ARQ) error control and adaptive scheduling scheme is proposed for time-division multiple access/time-division duplex medium access control (MAC) protocols in wireless asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks. Specifically, with the aid of proper channel modeling, the performance of various error-control schemes is evaluated. Accordingly, type-II hybrid ARQ is chosen as the error recovery scheme to combat fading effects, while adaptive fair-queueing is designed to achieve a fair and efficient resource allocation in wireless channels. In particular, the weight of a connection used in the fair-queueing algorithm dynamically adapts in terms of varying channel conditions and the types of services. Various simulations are conducted in typical indoor wireless ATM networks. It is shown that the proposed scheme can achieve a high throughput and transfer reliability with minimized delay and cell loss rate when compared with the conventional MAC layer control.     

Adaptive error coding using channel prediction

In this paper, we construct a finite-state Markov chain model for a Rayleigh fading channel by partitioning the range of the received signal envelope into K intervals. Using a simulation of the classic two-ray Rayleigh fading model, a Markov transition probability matrix is obtained. Using this matrix to predict the channel state, we introduce an adaptive forward error correction (FEC) coding scheme. Simulation results are presented to show that the adaptive FEC coding scheme significantly improves the performance of a wireless communication system.     

A cross-layer analysis of TCP/link adaptation technologies over free-space optical links with Markov error model

This paper presents a comprehensive cross-layer framework on the performance of transmission control protocol (TCP) over a free-space optical (FSO) link, which employs automatic repeat request (ARQ) and adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) schemes. Not similar to conventional works in the literature of FSO, we conduct a Markov error model to accurately capture effects of burst errors caused by atmospheric turbulence on cross-layer operations. From the framework, we quantify the impacts of different parameters/settings of ARQ, AMC, and the FSO link on TCP throughput performance. We also discuss several optimization aspects for TCP performance.     

Adaptive source rate control for real‐time wireless video transmission

Hybrid ARQ schemes can yield much better throughput and reliability than static FEC schemes for the transmission of data over time-varying wireless channels. However these schemes result in extra delay. They adapt to the varying channel conditions by retransmitting erroneous packets, this causes variable effective data rates for current PCS networks because the channel bandwidth is constant. Hybrid ARQ schemes are currently being proposed as the error control schemes for real-time video transmission. An important issue is how to ensure low delay while taking advantage of the high throughput and reliability that these schemes provide for. In this paper we propose an adaptive source rate control (ASRC) scheme which can work together with the hybrid ARQ error control schemes to achieve efficient transmission of real-time video with low delay and high reliability. The ASRC scheme adjusts the source rate based on the channel conditions, the transport buffer occupancy and the delay constraints. It achieves good video quality by dynamically changing both the number of the forced update (intracoded) macroblocks and the quantization scale used in a frame. The number of the forced update macroblocks used in a frame is first adjusted according to the allocated source rate. This reduces the fluctuation of the quantization scale with the change in the channel conditions during encoding so that the uniformity of the video quality is improved. The simulation results show that the proposed ASRC scheme performs very well for both slow fading and fast fading channels. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Markov error structure for throughput analysis of adaptive modulation systems combined with ARQ over correlated fading channels

We introduce an analytical method that uses a finite-state Markov chain (FSMC) as an error model, for estimating the performance of adaptive modulation systems (AMSs) combined with automatic repeat request (ARQ) schemes in correlated slow fading channels. For the throughput performance evaluation of wireless packet networks, conventionally, we have assumed independent block fading, which may also be suitable to represent fast fading channels. However, in slow fading channels, error rates of consecutive packets are highly correlated and we cannot simply assume independent error structure in performance evaluations. We propose a multistate Markov error structure for AMS in correlated fading channels, which is also described by a finite-state Markov chain (FSMC) and we also present throughput-estimation methods for AMS combined with ARQ, using the proposed Markov error structure.     

基于天线阵元功率限制MIMO系统的自适应调制

本文研究了天线阵元的发射功率受限MIMO系统。在信道准静态和系统发端已知信道信息的假设下,我们研究了该受限MIMO系统性能。在系统优化分析基础上,设计了一种简单的Bit分配方案进行系统自适应调制逼近系统容量。仿真结果表明该系统能更好接近真实环境,调制方案有较好性能。     

Throughput Analysis for Parallel ARQ over Correlated MIMO Channels

We treat the throughput analyses of parallel ARQ schemes over correlated MIMO channels with adaptive modulation and coding (AMC). To describe the packet transmission over multiple parallel logic channels, we extend the existing burst- error model for single channel to multiple parallel logic channels. Based on such a packet error model, we derive the throughput of different parallel ARQ protocols. Moreover, to describe the temporally correlated physical channel fading, we generalize the existing Markov model for single channel to multiple parallel channels for MIMO systems. Then we develop a method for calculating the packet-level model parameters from the parameters of the physical-layer model and the MIMO transceiver. Using the above hierarchical throughput analysis framework, we investigate the potential throughput gain or throughput loss of parallel ARQ over the conventional serial ARQ in MIMO systems. Our results reveal that as SNR increases, parallel ARQ can achieve higher throughput gain or less throughput loss compared to serial ARQ; parallel SW can achieve throughput gain in most of the MIMO scenarios but increasing the number of antennas does not always bring higher gain; parallel GBN with large number of antennas and independent buffers can achieve throughput gain; parallel SR incurs throughput loss.     

Modeling End-to-End Wireless Lossy Channels: A Finite-State Markov Approach

In this paper, we present a model for wireless losses in packet transmission data networks. The model provides information about the wireless channel status that can be used in congestion control schemes. A Finite State Markov Channel (FSMC) approach is implemented to model the wireless slow fading for different modulation schemes. The arrival process statistics of the packet traces determine the channel state transition probabilities, where the statistics of both error-free and erroneous bursts are captured. Later, we establish SNR partitioning scheme that uses the transition probabilities as a basis for the state margins. The crossover probability associated with each state is calculated accordingly. We also propose an end-to-end approach to loss discrimination based on the channel state estimation at the receiver. Finally, we present a scheme for finding the channel optimal number of states as a function of the SNR. The presented FSMC approach does not restrict the state transitions to the adjacent states, nor does impose constant state duration as compared to some literature studies. We validate our model by experimental packet traces. Our simulation results show the feasibility of building a fading channel model for better wireless-loss awareness.     

On ARQ scheme with adaptive error control

Adaptive automatic repeat request (ARQ) schemes are quite effective for throughput enhancement in time-varying mobile channel environments. An ARQ scheme with adaptive error-correcting codes is considered. A robust channel sensing algorithm by making use of XOR-ing is proposed for link adaptation. With the proposed channel estimation algorithm, an adaptive scheme that adapts its error-correcting codes according to channel conditions is presented. The efficiency of the proposed adaptive ARQ scheme is evaluated in terms of throughput performance by computer simulation for a time-varying mobile channel characterized by Rayleigh fading and log-normal shadowing. As an enhancement in counteracting long deep fades, the incorporation of frequency diversity into an adaptive ARQ scheme is also investigated and the simulation results show that this scheme is quite efficient in counteracting long deep fades     

Cross-Layer Performance Study of Cooperative Diversity System With ARQ

In this paper, a cross-layer design of a wireless communication system is proposed by considering a quadrature signaling (QS)-based cooperative diversity (CD) system employing truncated stop-and-wait automatic repeat request (ARQ) for error control. The proposed CD-ARQ scheme employs selection relaying at the partner, and all the transmission channels are assumed to exhibit Nakagami-$m$ fading. To analyze the cross-layer performance of the proposed scheme, a Markov model is developed by capturing the effects of correlated transmission errors of the Nakagami-$m$ fading cooperative channels. Based on the analysis, the effective cooperative channel of QS-CD-ARQ is uncorrelated when the normalized Doppler shift of at least one of the user-to-destination channels is higher than 0.2. Performance metrics (e.g., channel efficiency, packet loss rate, throughput, average delay, and jitter) are taken into account in the study. Our numerical results show that the QS-CD-ARQ scheme outperforms both an incremental-relaying-based CD system and a non-cooperative system if the average of the received signal is higher than the receiver sensitivity and if the channel between users is better than the direct transmission channel. In addition, QS-CD-ARQ provides the lowest packet loss rate with the lowest delay among all the schemes for any number of maximum retry limits. Moreover, compared with a scheme that employs incremental relaying, the proposed QS-CD-ARQ scheme is less complex to implement.      

Feedback-Detection Strategies for Adaptive Modulation Systems

This letter analyzes the performance of an adaptive modulation system, taking into account additive noise and fading on the feedback channel. It is shown that these feedback channel imperfections could significantly degrade the throughput gains of adaptive modulation over nonadaptive transmission. Specifically, feedback errors can result in an outage region in the low signal-to-noise ratio region. Two feedback receivers are proposed: one is based on the finite-state Markov channel model; and the other is a generalized Bayesian receiver. These receivers reduce the outage region due to feedback errors, and they can complement or be used as alternatives to error-control coding schemes.