Addressing the interdependence in providing fair and efficient bandwidth distribution in hybrid optical‐wireless networks

The convergence of optical and wireless technologies may offer a compelling network access infrastructure because these technologies combine major benefits such as large coverage in the wireless part and huge bandwidth in the optical part of the converged access network. The convergence of the passive optical networks with 4G wireless standards, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access and the Long Term Evolution, constitutes a quite attractive solution to meet the challenges of the modern bandwidth‐hungry access networks. One of the most important objective a modern access network has to address is the adequate bandwidth distribution to the final users. In addition, several other aims are emerged towards this goal, such as fairness and quality of service provisioning. The adversity of designing an efficient bandwidth distribution scheme for hybrid optical‐wireless access networks lies in the interdependence of both domains: the bandwidth distribution in the wireless domain depends on the optical transmission grant opportunities, while the bandwidth coordinator in the optical part has to be aware of the mobile user heterogeneity in the wireless domain. Moreover, the bandwidth decision‐making module in both networks has to be aware of providing a fair allocation independently of the number of mobile users or the traffic requests in the network. In this work, we endeavor to address the aforementioned challenges. A novel, fair, and efficient bandwidth distribution scheme is proposed for hybrid optical‐wireless access networks. By using weighted fairness provisioning techniques, the proposed scheme intends to alleviate the interdependence of the two domains, offering a fair and efficient bandwidth distribution to the mobile users. The weights are properly defined, by utilizing suitable optimization techniques such as the Lagrange multiplies, so as to incorporate the underlying features of each traffic requests, such as the population density and the propagation delay. Extensive simulation results indicate the capability of the proposed scheme, compared with other competitive allocation schemes, in provisioning a more efficient and fair bandwidth distribution in terms of latency, throughput, and packet drop ratio. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

OUR: Optimal Update‐based Replacement policy for cache in wireless data access networks with optimal effective hits and bandwidth requirements

In mobile wireless data access networks, remote data access is expensive in terms of bandwidth consumption. An efficient caching scheme can reduce the amount of data transmission, hence, bandwidth consumption. However, an update event makes the associated cached data objects obsolete and useless for many applications. Data access frequency and update play a crucial role in deciding which data objects should be cached. Seemingly, frequently accessed but infrequently updated objects should have higher preference while preserving in the cache. Other objects should have lower preference or be evicted, or should not be cached at all, to accommodate higher‐preference objects. In this paper, we proposed Optimal Update‐based Replacement, a replacement or eviction scheme, for cache management in wireless data networks. To facilitate the replacement scheme, we also presented two enhanced cache access schemes, named Update‐based Poll‐Each‐Read and Update‐based Call‐Back. The proposed cache management schemes were supported with strong theoretical analysis. Both analysis and extensive simulation results were given to demonstrate that the proposed schemes guarantee optimal amount of data transmission by increasing the number of effective hits and outperform the popular Least Frequently Used scheme in terms of both effective hits and communication cost. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Joint wireless and optical resources allocation for availability-guaranteed service in survivable fiber-wireless access network

The fiber-wireless (FIWi) access network not only leverages the technical merits of wireless and optical access networks, but also provides a potential opportunity for the design of survivable access networks. Previous works have studied the survivability of FiWi access network against network component failure by means of backup fiber deployment and wireless rerouting. However, most of these works put less attention on the connection availability and ignore the joint allocation of wireless and optical resources, which plays an important role in improving the global network performance gain. In this paper, we consider a notable failure scenario in FiWi access network but less mentioned in previous works, i.e., single shared-risk link group failure. We first propose a model for FiWi network to estimate the connection availability of service demand. Then, a novel resource allocation approach is proposed to provide the availability-guaranteed service. Under the requirements of bandwidth and connection availability, we deal with the optimal allocation of joint wireless and optical resources with the objective of minimum resource consumption. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can reduce the resource consumption significantly compared to the resource allocation without considering connection availability.     

Hybrid Wireless-Optical Broadband-Access Network (WOBAN): A Review of Relevant Challenges

The hybrid wireless-optical broadband-access network (WOBAN) is a promising architecture for future access networks. Recently, the wireless part of WOBAN has been gaining increasing attention, and early versions are being deployed as municipal access solutions to eliminate the wired drop to every wireless router at customer premises. This architecture saves on network deployment cost because the fiber need not penetrate each end-user, and it extends the reach of emerging optical-access solutions, such as passive optical networks. This paper first presents an architecture and a vision for the WOBAN and articulates why the combination of wireless and optical presents a compelling solution that optimizes the best of both worlds. While this discussion briefly touches upon the business drivers, the main arguments are based on technical and deployment considerations. Consequently, the rest of this paper reviews a variety of relevant research challenges, namely, network setup, network connectivity, and fault-tolerant behavior of the WOBAN. In the network setup, we review the design of a WOBAN where the back end is a wired optical network, the front end is managed by a wireless connectivity, and, in between, the tail ends of the optical part [known as optical network unit (ONU)] communicate directly with wireless base stations (known as ldquogateway routersrdquo). We outline algorithms to optimize the placement of ONUs in a WOBAN and report on a survey that we conducted on the distribution and types of wireless routers in the Wildhorse residential neighborhood of North Davis, CA. Then, we examine the WOBAN's routing properties (network connectivity), discuss the pros and cons of various routing algorithms, and summarize the idea behind fault-tolerant design of such hybrid networks.     

Proportional bandwidth allocation with consideration of delay constraint over IEEE 802.11e-based wireless mesh networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) extend the limited transmission coverage of wireless LANs by enabling users to connect to the Internet via a multi-hop relay service provided by wireless mesh routers. In such networks the quality of experience (QoE) depends on both the user location relative to the Internet gateway and the traffic load. Various channel access or queue management schemes have been proposed for achieving throughput fairness among WMN users. However, delay and bandwidth utilization efficiency of such schemes may be unacceptable for real-time applications. Accordingly, the present study proposes a proportional bandwidth allocation scheme with a delay constraint consideration for enhancing the QoE of users of WMNs based on the IEEE 802.11e standard. An analytical model of the proposed scheme is provided. Moreover, the performance of the proposed scheme is systematically compared with that of existing bandwidth allocation methods. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms previously proposed schemes in terms of both an improved throughput fairness among the WMN users and a smaller end-to-end transmission delay.     

Towards generalized ID‐based user authentication for mobile multi‐server environment

With the popularity of Internet and wireless networks, more and more network architectures are used in multi‐server environment, in which mobile users remotely access servers through open networks. In the past, many schemes have been proposed to solve the issue of user authentication for multi‐server environment and low‐power mobile devices. However, most of these schemes have suffered from many attacks because these schemes did not provide the formal security analysis. In this paper, we first give a security model for multi‐server environment. We then propose an ID‐based mutual authentication and key agreement scheme based on bilinear maps for mobile multi‐server environment. Our scheme can be used for both general users with a long validity period and anonymous users with a short validity period. Under the presented security model, we show that our scheme is secure against all known attacks. We demonstrate that the proposed scheme is well suitable for low‐power mobile devices. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Models of Restoration Probability in WDM Networks Employing Active Restoration

The ever-increasing demand for network bandwidth makes network survivability an issue of great concern. Lightpath restoration is a valuable approach to guaranteeing an acceptable level of survivability in WDM optical networks with better resource utilization than that of its protection counterpart. Active restoration (AR) is a newly proposed lightpath restoration scheme [M. Mostafa et al. OSA Journal of Optical Networking, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 247–260] that combines the best of protection and reactive restoration while avoiding their shortcomings. In this paper, we conduct detailed performance analysis on the restoration probability of AR-based WDM networks. In particular, analytical models of restoration probability are developed respectively for networks with full-wavelength conversion capability and for networks without wavelength conversion capability under different backup path searching schemes. Based on the new models, we investigate the effects of wavelength availability, wavelength conversion capability, path length as well as backup path seeking methods on the restoration probability.     

Reliability and cost evaluation of third-generation wireless accessnetwork topologies: a case study

The "explosive growth in bursty traffic" changes the network dynamics and requires a good evaluation of various classes of service when designing an access network. From a topological standpoint, the multiservice networks in this paper are heterogeneous systems which integrate both a core and some wireless access networks into an infrastructure similar to third-generation wireless networks. Such networks require reliable and cost-effective solutions to the problem of selecting access technologies for satisfying performance and quality of service requirements related to the services and applications envisioned. This paper analyzes the reliability aspects of some access network topologies to insure a certain level of quality of service at the lowest cost for the end users. It considers a mass market equivalent to 1.6 million subscribers, the objective being to determine the cost the users are ready to pay to benefit from services and applications provided by these multiservice networks. For these purposes, the relative behavior of 3 access-network topologies are studied: the tree with parallel backup links, the ring, and the partially meshed topologies. In ring topology, simulation results show that a great connectivity in the access network is not justified in terms of reliability requirements; the partially meshed topology, even if it has redundant links which affect its cost, outperforms the tree with parallel backup links; and the ring topology is more reliable in terms of disconnected sessions than the tree topology. By considering both reliability and cost, a tree with parallel backup links appears the best topology for the access network and its cost is acceptable for the end user. This study can be extended by: (1) establishing the cost as a function of the quality of service; (2) optimizing the partially meshed topology for more reliable networks; and (3) defining a (shaping) policy to deal with a variety of traffic schemes     

Cache‐at‐relay: energy‐efficient content placement for next‐generation wireless relays

Uploading and downloading content have recently become one of the major reasons for the growth of Internet traffic volume. With the increasing popularity of social networking tools and their video upload/download applications, as well as the connectivity enhancements in wireless networks, it has become a second nature for mobile users to access on‐demand content on‐the‐go. Urban hot spots, usually implemented via wireless relays, answer the bandwidth need of those users. On the other hand, the same popular contents are usually acquired by a large number of users at different times, and fetching those from the initial content source each and every time makes inefficient use of network resources. In‐network caching provides a solution to this problem by bringing contents closer to the users. Although in‐network caching has been previously studied from latency and transport energy minimization perspectives, energy‐efficient schemes to prolong user equipment lifetime have not been considered. To address this problem, we propose the cache‐at‐relay (CAR) scheme, which utilizes wireless relays for in‐network caching of popular contents with content access and caching energy minimization objectives. CAR consists of three integer linear programming models, namely, select relay, place content, and place relay, which respectively solve content access energy minimization, joint minimization of content access and caching energy, and joint minimization of content access energy and relay deployment cost problems. We have shown that place relay significantly minimizes the content access energy consumption of user equipments, while place content provides a compromise between the content access and the caching energy budgets of the network. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An optimized QoS scheme for IMS‐NEMO in heterogeneous networks

The network mobility (NEMO) is proposed to support the mobility management when users move as a whole. In IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), the individual Quality of Service (QoS) control for NEMO results in excessive signaling cost. On the other hand, current QoS schemes have two drawbacks: unawareness of the heterogeneous wireless environment and inefficient utilization of the reserved bandwidth. To solve these problems, we present a novel heterogeneous bandwidth sharing (HBS) scheme for QoS provision under IMS‐based NEMO (IMS‐NEMO). The HBS scheme selects the most suitable access network for each session and enables the new coming non‐real‐time sessions to share bandwidth with the Variable Bit Rate (VBR) coded media flows. The modeling and simulation results demonstrate that the HBS can satisfy users' QoS requirement and obtain a more efficient use of the scarce wireless bandwidth. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Class-based quality of service over air interfaces in 4G mobilenetworks

We present a framework for quality of service provisioning over the air interfaces in future wireless networks, including 3G enhancement and 4G mobile networks. The framework is based on the paradigm of service classes, wherein each class can exhibit a characteristic behavior in terms of resource allocation over the air interface. Using this QoS framework, future wireless network operators can define their own sets of service classes, choose the preferred way of implementing the QoS behavior of these classes, and offer class-based pricing schemes. The user application can choose the service class that best suits its expectations in terms of QoS and cost of access. A class-based bandwidth scheduling scheme is described as a mechanism to implement this QoS framework over CDMA air interfaces. This scheme incorporates the paradigm of service classes, in conjunction with fair resource allocation and air interface congestion resilience, while allocating air interface bandwidth to mobile users     

Proxy‐RED: an AQM scheme for wireless local area networks

Wireless access points (APs) act as bridges between wired and wireless networks. Since the actually available bandwidth in wireless networks is much smaller than the bandwidth in wired networks, there is a disparity in channel capacity which makes the access point a significant network congestion point in the downstream direction. A current architectural trend in wireless local area networks (WLAN) is to move functionality from APs to a centralized gateway in order to reduce cost and improve features. In this paper, we study the use of RED, a well known active queue management (AQM) scheme, and explicit congestion notification (ECN) to handle bandwidth disparity between the wired and the wireless interface of an access point. Then, we propose the Proxy‐RED scheme, as a solution for reducing the AQM overhead from the access point. Simulations‐based performance analysis indicates that the proposed Proxy‐RED scheme improves the overall performance of a network. In particular, the Proxy‐RED scheme significantly reduces packet loss rate and improves goodput for a small buffer, and minimizes delay for a large buffer size. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Wavelength retuning without service interruption in an all‐optical survivable network

This paper proposes a new wavelength retuning (WRT) scheme in an all‐optical WDM network. Compared with the existing WRT schemes developed for all‐optical networks, which can alleviate the wavelength‐continuity constraint but cannot avoid service interruption or data loss, the proposed scheme is able to alleviate the wavelength‐continuity constraint and reduce the connection blocking probability with no service interruption to the on‐going traffic. This is achieved by allocating two routes, one for active path and one for backup path, to each incoming connection request and conducting WRT only on the backup path. The backup path provides an alternate path in case of a failure, while the active path carries traffic under normal conditions. Thus, WRT on the backup path will not cause any impact on data transmission. An optimal backup path WRT scheme and a heuristic algorithm are developed and the performance evaluation on the proposed schemes is presented. The simulation results show that the proposed optimal scheme reduces the connection blocking probability by 46.8% on average, while the proposed heuristic scheme reduces the blocking probability by 28.3% on average, all compared with the scheme without WRT. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamic bandwidth partition schemes for integrated voice,video, and data traffic in the IEEE 802.11e distributed wireless LANs

In mobile cellular networks, bandwidth is deterministic in terms of the number of channels by frequency division, time division, or code division. On the other hand, bandwidth partition schemes in the contention‐based medium access control (MAC) in distributed wireless LANs are extremely challenging due to the contention‐based nature, packet‐based network, and the most important aspect: only one channel available, competed by an unknown number of stations. In this paper, we study this challenging issue. We propose and study four different bandwidth partition schemes for integrated voice/video/data traffic in the IEEE 802.11e wireless LANs: a Static bandwidth Partition (SP) scheme, a Dynamic budget Partition (DP) scheme, a Dynamic bandwidth Partition with Finer‐Tune (DP‐FT) scheme, and a Dynamic bandwidth Partition with Reserved Region (DP‐RR). The proposed schemes are compared and evaluated via extensive simulations. Results show that the DP‐FT scheme is the best scheme. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A novel AWG-based WDM-PON architecture with full protection capability

The higher bandwidth utilization of wavelength-division-multiplexing passive optical networks (WDM-PONs) can be problematic if the link failure is not repaired in a timely manner since major data losses may occur in the event of link failure. Therefore, developing robust WDM-PON architectures with an effective protection capability is an essential task when designing optical access networks. Although the literature contains many proposals for WDM-PON protection schemes, the majority of these schemes protect either the feeder fibers or the distribution fibers, but not both. By exploiting the cyclic properties of the AWG and establishing appropriate interconnections between matched pairs of ONUs such that one ONU in the pair can use the distribution fiber assigned to its partner for backup purposes, the proposed scheme can protect both the feeder fibers and the distribution fibers through the designated protection streams in feeder fiber 3. Additionally, five operational modes of the proposed scheme are detailed with the proposed wavelength assignment scheme, the operational sequence, and the operation flow chart of decision circuit in the ONU/OLT. The analytical results have shown that the proposed scheme not only provides a full protection capability for WDM-PON networks, but also has a lower unavailability, a lower construction cost, and a reduced wavelength requirement than existing representative protection schemes. Finally, an analysis of the power budget and the recovery time has confirmed the practical feasibility of the proposed scheme.     

A novel delay-aware routing algorithm (DARA) for a hybrid wireless-optical broadband access network (WOBAN)

A hybrid wireless-optical broadband access network (WOBAN) is a promising architecture for future access networks. Recently, the WOBAN has been gaining increasing attention, and early versions are being deployed as municipal access solutions. This architecture saves on network deployment cost because fiber need not penetrate to each end user. However, a major research opportunity exists in developing an efficient routing algorithm for the wireless front-end of the WOBAN. We propose and investigate the characteristics of the delay-aware routing algorithm (DARA) that minimizes the average packet delay in the wireless front-end of a WOBAN. In DARA we model wireless routers as queues and predict wireless link states periodically. Our performance studies show that DARA achieves less delay and congestion, and improved load balancing compared to traditional approaches such as the minimum-hop routing algorithm, shortest-path routing algorithm, and predictive throughput routing algorithm.     

A terminal‐controlled vertical handover decision scheme in IEEE 802.21‐enabled heterogeneous wireless networks

The seamless internetworking among heterogeneous networks is in great demand to provide ‘always‐on’ connectivity services with quality of service (QoS) provision, anywhere at anytime. The integration of wireless‐fidelity (Wi‐Fi) and wireless metropolitan area networks (WiMAX) networks can combine their best features to provide ubiquitous access, while mediating the weakness of both networks. While it is challenging to obtain optimized handover decision‐based dynamic QoS information, users can improve their perceived QoS by using the terminal‐controlled handover decision in a single device equipped with multiple radio interfaces. The IEEE 802.21 aims at providing a framework that defines media‐independent handover (MIH) mechanism that supports seamless handover across heterogeneous networks. In this paper, an multiple attributes decision making‐based terminal‐controlled vertical handover decision scheme using MIH services is proposed in the integrated Wi‐Fi and WiMAX networks to provide ‘always‐on’ connectivity QoS services. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme provides smaller handover times and lower dropping rate than the RSS‐based and cost function‐based vertical handover schemes. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Q-Win – A New Admission and Handoff Management Scheme for Multimedia LEO Satellite Networks

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networks are deployed as an enhancement to terrestrial wireless networks in order to provide broadband services to users regardless of their location. In addition to global coverage, these satellite systems support communications with hand-held devices and offer low cost-per-minute access cost, making them promising platform for Personal Communication Services (PCS). LEO satellites are expected to support multimedia traffic and to provide their users with the negotiated Quality of Service (QoS). However, the limited bandwidth of the satellite channel, satellite rotation around the Earth and mobility of end-users makes QoS provisioning and mobility management a challenging task. One important mobility problem is the intra-satellite handoff management. The main contribution of this work is to propose Q-Win, a novel call admission and handoff management scheme for LEO satellite networks. A key ingredient in our scheme is a companion predictive bandwidth allocation strategy that exploits the topology of the network and contributes to maintaining high bandwidth utilization. Our bandwidth allocation scheme is specifically tailored to meet the QoS needs of multimedia connections. The performance of Q-Win is compared to that of two recent schemes proposed in the literature. Simulation results show that our scheme offers low call dropping probability, providing for reliable handoff of on-going calls, good call blocking probability for new call requests, while maintaining bandwidth utilization high.     

A fragment‐based retransmission scheme with quality‐of‐service considerations for wireless networks

In order to satisfy quality‐of‐service requirements for real‐time multimedia applications over wireless networks, IEEE 802.11e has been proposed to enhance wireless‐access functionalities. In IEEE 802.11e, collisions occur frequently as the system load becomes heavy, and then, the latency for successfully transmitting data is lengthened seriously because of contention, handshaking, and backoff overheads for collision avoidance. In this paper, we propose a fragment‐based retransmission (FBR) scheme with quality‐of‐service considerations for IEEE 802.11e‐based wireless local area networks. Our FBR can be used in all proposed fragmentation‐based schemes and greatly decrease redundant transmission overheads. By utilizing FBR, the retransmission delay will be significantly improved to conform strict time requirements for real‐time multimedia applications. We develop an analytical model and a simulation model to investigate the performance of FBR. The capability of the proposed scheme is evaluated by a series of simulations, for which we have encouraging results. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Provision of quality of service in wireless fourth generation networks

A key word describing next generation wireless networks is ‘seamless’. Wireless fourth generation (4G) networks represent a set of new technologies that will enable seamless integration of various wireless access systems, while targeting to support various sophisticated and quality of service constraining applications, such as high‐speed data services and multimedia services. This paper first proposes an architecture for 4G networks. The most significant feature of this architecture is its flexibility, openness and ability to enable seamless handoff in a single logical overlay network composed of many heterogeneous access networks. A medium access control (MAC) protocol for basic access networks is then introduced. A generic scheduling scheme, named CS‐EDF (channel state‐earliest deadline first) and the details of an efficient handoff management method are also briefly introduced. The bandwidth utilization, handoff resources reservation, and scheduling scheme performances of the proposed schemes are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.