Improved modeling of IEEE 802.11a PHY through fine-grained measurements

In wireless networks, modeling of the physical layer behavior is an important yet difficult task. Modeling and estimating wireless interference is receiving great attention, and is crucial in a wireless network performance study. The physical layer capture, preamble detection, and carrier sense threshold are three key components that play important roles in successful frame reception in the presence of interference. Using our IEEE 802.11a wireless network testbed, we carry out a measurement study that reveals the detailed operation of each component and in particular we show the terms and conditions (interference timing, signal power difference, bitrate) under which a frame survives interference according to the preamble detection and capture logic. Based on the measurement study, we show that the operations of the three components in real IEEE 802.11a systems differ from those of popular simulators and present our modifications of the IEEE 802.11a PHY models to the NS-2 and QualNet network simulators. The modifications can be summarized as follows. (i) The current simulators’ frame reception is based only on the received signal strength. However, real 802.11 systems can start frame reception only when the Signal-to-Interference Ratio (SIR) is high enough to detect the preamble. (ii) Different chipset vendors implement the frame reception and capture algorithms differently, resulting in different operations for the same event. We provide different simulation models for several popular chipset vendors and show the performance differences between the models. (iii) Based on the 802.11a standard setting and our testbed observation, we revise the simulator to set the carrier sense threshold higher than the receiver sensitivity rather than equal to the receiver sensitivity. We implement our modifications to the QualNet simulator and evaluate the impact of PHY model implementations on the wireless network performance; these result in an up to six times increase of net throughput.     

A backward-compatible multiple-round collision avoidance scheme for contention based medium access control

Random-access mechanisms play an important role in wireless networks, and have been extensively studied in recent years. Although many previous studies have proposed enhanced algorithms, each one has only considered either throughput or fairness. In this paper, we propose an efficient random-access mechanism called Multi-round Collision Avoidance (MrCA) that considers throughput and fairness together. The key idea in MrCA is to avoid collisions through multiple contentions, each with a smaller sized contention window. With this simple modification, we can significantly reduce the collision probability as well as the access delay, in addition to increasing fairness index. We find the collision probability and throughput analytically. Through simulation, we validate our analytical model and find appropriate parameters for achieving good performance. We also demonstrate that, compared to the IEEE 802.11 DCF, MrCA makes the collision probability extremely low, so that it increases throughput by 25% as well as short-term fairness by 50% with 50 contending nodes. When MrCA and 802.11 DCF schemes are combined with the auto rate fallback scheme, the performance gain of MrCA over 802.11 DCF increases because MrCA lowers the collision probability significantly, which makes channel error estimation more accurate. We also discuss the issues of implementation and backward compatibility.     

An accurate closed-form formula for the throughput of long-lived TCP connections in IEEE 802.11 WLANs

There is a vast literature on the performance modeling of the 802.11 MAC protocol, but the interplay between the TCP dynamics and the self-regulating behavior of the 802.11 CSMA/CA access method has not been sufficiently investigated. In addition, it has been observed that TCP stations in a WLAN are sporadically active due to the TCP flow control mechanisms. This makes traditional saturated models of the network capacity of 802.11 WLANs not very accurate. We presented a rigorous analytical model to calculate the distribution of the number of active TCP stations in a WLAN with multiple long-lived TCP flows [R. Bruno, M. Conti, E. Gregori, Performance modelling and measurements of TCP transfer throughput in 802.11-based WLAN, in: Proceedings of the IEEE MsWiM 2006, Torremolinos, Malaga, Spain, 2006, pp. 4–11, [1]]. Starting from this analysis, in this paper we derive a simple but accurate closed-form expression of the per-connection TCP throughout as a function of the average duration of collisions, the average backoff period and the TCP packet size. We validate this formula through performance tests carried out on a real WLAN. Then, we use our model to mathematically study the optimal minimum contention window size to maximize the TCP throughput. Our analytical results indicate that the initial window size specified in the 802.11b standard is about two times larger than the optimal one. However, we also show that the TCP throughput performance is not very sensitive to changes of the minimum contention window size, and that the TCP flows significantly underutilize the channel bandwidth also in the optimal MAC operating state.     

Dynamic ARF for throughput improvement in 802.11 WLAN via a machine-learning approach

The paper presents a dynamic Auto Rate Fallback (ARF) algorithm to improve the performance of aggregate throughput in IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). ARF is a simple and heuristic Rate Adaptation (RA) algorithm adopted by most of the commercial 802.11 WLAN products. However, when the traffic contentions among 802.11 nodes rise, using ARF will tend to degrade transmission rates due to increasing packet collisions and can consequently cause a decline of overall throughput. In this paper we propose a machine-learning based dynamic ARF scheme which utilizes neural networks to learn the correlation function of the optimal success and failure thresholds with respect to the corresponding contention situations including the number of contending nodes, channel conditions, and traffic intensity. At runtime, the generalized mapping function is then applied to determine the optimal threshold values depending on the current contention situations to achieve the best system throughput. We use the Qualnet simulator to evaluate and compare the performance of our scheme with that of the ARF and AARF algorithm. Simulation results illustrate that the proposed dynamic ARF approach outperforms these RA schemes in terms of improving the aggregate throughput in a variety of 802.11 WLAN environments.     

基于全网冲突的自适应退避算法的研究

退避算法的设计对基于竞争的IEEE 802.11协议影响重大,而退避的前提取决于冲突的发生和正确判断。本文在DCF协议的基础上提出了一种基于全网冲突的自适应调整竞争窗口的新型退避算法(CWN-BEB),CWN-BEB算法通过统计全网冲突次数(即整个网络所有节点发生冲突的总次数),使全网冲突对节点透明,并引入一个新的变量全网冲突概率来自适应改变竞争窗口大小。此算法未引入额外开销,可以很好地与802.11 DCF协议兼容,实现复杂度低。仿真结果表明,在低负载情况下,CWN-BEB算法可以较好地向DCF协议收敛;在高负载情况下,CWN-BEB的时延和吞吐量等性能明显优于802.11 DCF协议。     

Nonsaturation throughput enhancement of IEEE 802.11b distributed coordination function for heterogeneous traffic under noisy environment

In this paper, we propose a mechanism named modified backoff (MB) mechanism to decrease the channel idle time in IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function (DCF). In the noisy channel, when signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is low, applying this mechanism in DCF greatly improves the throughput and lowers the channel idle time. This paper presents an analytical model for the performance study of IEEE 802.11 MB-DCF for nonsaturated heterogeneous traffic in the presence of transmission errors. First, we introduce the MB-DCF and compare its performance to IEEE 802.11 DCF with binary exponential backoff (BEB). The IEEE 802.11 DCF with BEB mechanism suffers from more channel idle time under low SNR. The MB-DCF ensures high throughput and low packet delay by reducing the channel idle time under the low traffic in the network. However, to the best of the authors' knowledge, there are no previous works that enhance the performance of the DCF under imperfect wireless channel. We show through analysis that the proposed mechanism greatly outperforms the original IEEE 802.11 DCF in the imperfect channel condition. The effectiveness of physical and link layer parameters on throughput performance is explored. We also present a throughput investigation of the heterogeneous traffic for different radio conditions.     

An experimental study of inter-cell interference effects on system performance in unplanned wireless LAN deployments

In this paper, we report on our experimental study of the effects of inter-cell interference on IEEE 802.11 performance. Due to growing use of wireless LANs (WLANs) in residential areas and settings supporting flash crowds, chaotic unplanned deployments are becoming the norm rather than an exception. Environments in which these WLANs are deployed, have many nearby access points and stations on the same channel, either due to lack of coordination or insufficient available channels. Thus, inter-cell interference is common but not well-understood. According to conventional wisdom, the efficiency of an IEEE 802.11 network is determined by the number of active clients. However, we find that with a typical TCP-dominant workload, cumulative system throughput is characterized by the number of actively interfering access points rather than the number of clients. We verify that due to TCP flow control, the number of backlogged stations in such a network equals twice the number of active access points. Thus, a single access point network proves very robust even with over one hundred clients, while multiple interfering access points lead to a significant increase in collisions that reduces throughput and affects media traffic. Only two congested interfering cells prevent high quality VoIP calls. Based on these findings, we suggest a practical contention window adaptation technique using information on the number of nearby access points rather than clients. We also point out the need for collision-resilient rate adaptation in such a setting. Together these techniques can largely recover the 50% loss in cumulative throughput in a setting with four strongly interfering access points.     

Distributed channel assignment algorithms for 802.11n WLANs with heterogeneous clients

As the latest IEEE 802.11 standard, 802.11n applies several new technologies, such as multiple input multiple output (MIMO), channel bonding, and frame aggregation to greatly improve the rate, range and reliability of wireless local area networks (WLANs). In 802.11n WLANs, access points (APs) are often densely deployed to provide satisfactory coverage. Thus nearby APs should operate at non-overlapping channels to avoid mutual interference. It is challenging to assign channels in legacy 802.11a/b/g WLANs due to the limited number of channels. Channel assignment becomes more complex in 802.11n WLANs, as the channel bonding in 802.11n allows WLAN stations (APs and clients) to combine two adjacent, non-overlapping 20MHz channels together for transmission. On the other hand, IEEE 802.11n is backward compatible, such that 802.11n clients will coexist with legacy clients in 802.11n WLANs. Legacy clients may affect the performance of nearby 802.11n clients, and reduce the effectiveness of channel bonding. Based on these observations, in this paper, we study channel assignment in 802.11n WLANs with heterogeneous clients. We first present the network model, interference model, and throughput estimation model to estimate the throughput of each client. We then formulate the channel assignment problem into an optimization problem, with the objective of maximizing overall network throughput. Since the problem is NP-hard, we give a distributed channel assignment algorithm based on the throughput estimation model. We then present another channel assignment algorithm with lower complexity, and aim at minimizing interference experienced by high-rate, 802.11n clients. We have carried out extensive simulations to evaluate the proposed algorithms. Simulation results show that our algorithms can significantly improve the network throughput of 802.11n WLANs, compared with other channel assignment algorithms.     

Design and performance evaluation of throughput-aware rate adaptation protocols for IEEE 802.11 wireless networks

Experimental studies have shown that traditional rate adaptation schemes for 802.11 wireless networks suffer from significant throughput degradation in highly congested networks. To address this problem, this paper makes the following two main contributions. First, we design a method to accurately estimate the per-packet transmission times, and we use these measurements to provide a broad classification of the network state and to identify network congestion. Second, we design a new Throughput-Aware Rate Adaptation (TARA) scheme, which uses the congestion estimates to mitigate the negative impact of link-layer collisions on the operations of rate adaptation, without requiring changes in the 802.11 MAC specification. Another key feature of our solution is to minimize probing overheads and limit unnecessary rate decreases by predicting the throughput gain that could be brought about by a change in the transmission rate. Through experiments conducted across a variety of network scenarios and traffic patterns, we show that TARA achieves significantly higher throughput than the other rate adaptation algorithms implemented in the legacy Madwifi driver.     

Control theoretic optimization of 802.11 WLANs: Implementation and experimental evaluation

In 802.11 WLANs, adapting the contention parameters to network conditions results in substantial performance improvements. Even though the ability to change these parameters has been available in standard devices for years, so far no adaptive mechanism using this functionality has been validated in a realistic deployment. In this paper we report our experiences with implementing and evaluating two adaptive algorithms based on control theory, one centralized and one distributed, in a large-scale testbed consisting of 18 commercial off-the-shelf devices. We conduct extensive measurements, considering different network conditions in terms of number of active nodes, link qualities, and data traffic. We show that both algorithms significantly outperform the standard configuration in terms of total throughput. We also identify the limitations inherent in distributed schemes, and demonstrate that the centralized approach substantially improves performance under a large variety of scenarios, which confirms its suitability for real deployments.     

Throughput analysis and bandwidth allocation for IEEE 802.11 WLAN with hidden terminals

Motivated by observations from real world wireless local area network (WLAN) deployments, we develop in this paper a novel analytical model to characterize the saturation throughput of an IEEE 802.11-based access point (AP) and stations under the influence of hidden terminals. Unlike existing models, our model can accommodate different numbers of hidden nodes without increasing the model complexity. Given any number of hidden nodes, only four constraints are needed to describe the interaction between stations and the AP with the consideration of both uplink and downlink traffic. Simulation evaluation shows that our model predicts network performance accurately over a wide range of network sizes and indicates the existence of a throughput starvation problem. To address this problem, based on our model, we formulate a bandwidth allocation problem to optimize the network throughput and fairness under some predefined requirements by systematically tuning the AP and stations contention windows. Simulation results show that the starvation problem is resolved with our approach, and the target throughput is met.     

Coordinated opportunistic routing protocol for wireless mesh networks

Opportunistic routing is an emerging research area in Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs), that exploits the broadcast nature of wireless networks to find the optimal routing solution that maximizes throughput and minimizes packet loss. Opportunistic routing protocols mainly suffer from computational overheads, as most of the protocols try to find the best next forwarding node. In this paper we address the key issue of computational overhead by designing new routing technique without using pre-selected list of potential forwarders. We propose a novel opportunistic routing technique named, Coordinated Opportunistic Routing Protocol for WMNs (CORP-M). We compare CORP-M with well-known protocols, such as AODV, OLSR, and ROMER based on throughput, delivery ratio, and average end-to-end delay. Simulation results show that CORP-M, gives average throughput increase upto 32%, and increase in delivery ratio (from 10% to 20%). We also analyze the performance of CORP-M and ROMER based on various parameters, such as duplicate transmissions and network collisions, by analysis depicts that CORP-M reduces duplicate transmissions upto 70% and network collisions upto 30%.     

Backpressure scheduling in IEEE 802.11 wireless mesh networks: Gap between theory and practice

Achieving efficient bandwidth utilization in wireless networks requires solving two important problems: (1) which packets to send (i.e., packet scheduling) and (2) which links to concurrently activate (i.e., link scheduling). To address these scheduling problems, many algorithms have been proposed and their throughput optimality and stability are proven in theory. One of the most well-known scheduling algorithms is backpressure scheduling which performs both link and packet scheduling assuming a TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) MAC (Medium Access Control) layer. However, there has been limited work on realizing backpressure scheduling with a CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance) MAC layer (e.g., IEEE 802.11). In IEEE 802.11 networks, it is expected that the throughput optimality will not be achieved. In this paper, we investigate the extent of this throughput gap between theoretical TDMA-based backpressure scheduling and an approximation of it for IEEE 802.11 WMNs (Wireless Mesh Networks). Through extensive testbed measurements, we verify that there is indeed a non-negligible throughput gap. We present two main reasons behind this gap: Control inaccuracy that results from approximation of link scheduling and information inaccuracy that results from late or incorrect information, for instance, about queue lengths or network topology. Our results show that losses by MAC-layer collisions and backoff, which mainly occur due to control inaccuracy plays a major role for the throughput gap. On the other hand, while losses by queue drops, typically due to information inaccuracy, do occur, their effect can be tolerated. Nevertheless, both types of inaccuracies need to be mitigated in order to improve throughput.     

一种基于邻接节点信息的合作式Ad Hoc网络协议

在802.11协议中,DCF（Distributed Coordination Function）机制是节点共享无线信道进行数据传输的基本接入方式,为了解决无线网络中隐藏节点问题,使用RTS/CTS机制减少冲突,然而当网络节点数增加时,节点传输的冲突次数亦增加,从而使网络性能明显下降。因此,需要设计新的MAC协议,以适应当前Ad Hoc网络应用的快速发展。在IEEE 802.11的分布式协调功能访问机制（DCF）基础上,本文设计新的节点合作式的网络协议（C-MAC）。C-MAC节点通过控制帧获得本节点2跳内的邻接节点信息,并且根据邻接节点的信息设计调度算法,使节点以轮询的合作方式传输数据,有效地避免冲突。仿真实验表明,在改变节点速率、帧长度、网络节点数等参数情况下,分别以吞吐量、单帧传输时间和公平性为指标,对DCF和C MAC协议进行性能比较。在节点传输速率为11Mbps时,C MAC协议吞吐量比标准DCF最多可增加50%。     

Enhanced cooperative communication MAC for mobile wireless networks

In this paper, we propose a new MAC (medium access control) protocol called enhanced cooperative communication MAC (ECCMAC) based on IEEE 802.11. The major objective of ECCMAC is to maximize the benefits of cooperative communication. We first propose a scheme for selecting and maintaining the best relay node. Second, since both cooperative communication and network coding rely on the selection of a relay node, we consider exploiting a network coding technique for additional throughput improvement. Third, to accommodate asymmetric link rates between a sender and a relay node, we employ ECCMAC to measure forward and reverse link rates, whereas prior works have simply assumed symmetric rates. ECCMAC is evaluated in this paper through theoretical analysis, extensive simulation, and simulation with measured data, and the results show that ECCMAC effectively improves wireless network performance.     

一种应用干扰消除进行冲突消解的分布式无线MAC协议

媒介接入控制(MAC)用以协调无线节点对公共信道的共享,对无线网络性能有至关重要的影响。传统的MAC协议只能抑制冲突,不能根除及处理冲突。提出了一种基于已知干扰消除技术的新型消解冲突方法,并以此为基础设计了一个全新的MAC协议——CR-MAC。在CR-MAC协议中,无线接入点(AP)通过将部分报文传输与已知干扰消除相结合来解码冲突所包含的所有报文。因此发生冲突的报文传输过程能够被充分利用,且所需的报文重传减少了。实验结果表明,在网络吞吐率及预期报文时延指标上,CR-MAC协议较普遍采用的IEEE 802.11DCF协议均有明显优势。     

噪声环境下IEEE 802.11 DCF的性能仿真及算法改进

在对噪声环境下IEEE 802．11 DCF性能进行仿真分析的基础上，提出了一种适应于无线噪声环境的DCF改进算法，该算法通过接收端反馈消息来区分因冲突和误码产生的数据包传输失败，并在发送端针对不同的传输失败原因分别采取不同的退避算法。仿真结果表明改进算法的性能优于DCF，饱和吞吐量比DCF最多能够提高103％。     

HWMP协议的路径选择参数的研究与改进

混合无线网格协议中的路径选择参数过于注重考虑不同网络间路径选择操作的兼容性,而没有很好地考虑到802.11s中各条链路类型的差异对路径选择操作的影响。针对该问题,同时考虑到802.11s支持多速率通讯的要求,在传统WCETT的基础上提出了一种新的路径选择参数计算方案。最后,进行了仿真实验,结果表明：新的路径选择参数有助于提高网络吞吐量,降低丢包率。因此,该参数对于优化基于802.11的无线网格网的路径选择,提高网络性能是行之有效的。     

How to Effectively Use Multiple Channels in Wireless Mesh Networks

Operating on a frequency band occupying several nonoverlapping channels, IEEE 802.11 is now widely used in wireless mesh networks (WMNs). Many multichannel MAC protocols are proposed to improve the spatial reuse in the network under the assumption that the transmissions on nonoverlapping channels do not interfere with each other. Some joint routing and channel assignment algorithms are also designed to increase the network throughput based on the premise that we can switch between different channels freely. Although simulations show that great improvements on network throughput can be observed in both cases, two fundamental questions remain: 1) Can we really use multiple nonoverlapping channels freely in WMNs? 2) If we can, what will be the cost when we switch channels dynamically and frequently? In this paper, by conducting extensive experiments on our testbed, we attempt to answer these questions. We find that in spite of interference between both overlapping and nonoverlapping channels, we can still use multiple channels in mesh networks under certain conditions but with care. We also show that the channel switching cost is actually very significant in WMNs. We recommend not to switch the channels too frequently when designing the channel assignment algorithms, and those channel assignment algorithms selecting one channel for each packet are not really beneficial.     

Joint transmit power and physical carrier sensing adaptation based on loss differentiation for high density IEEE 802.11 WLAN

In high density (HD) IEEE 802.11 WLAN, packet loss can occur due to co-channel interference (asynchronous interference) or collisions (synchronous interference). In order to effectively mitigate the interference for spatial reuse, the causes of packet loss should be differentiated and corresponding network parameters (physical carrier sensing (PCS) threshold, transmit power (TXPW) and contention windows size) tuned accordingly. Such loss differentiation ability is not supported by current IEEE 802.11 networks; we devised a novel, zero over-the-air overhead, robust yet accurate method of estimating the probability of collision and interference, respectively. In this work, we investigate how to use differentiated packet error rate (PER) to mitigate asynchronous interference for increasing spatial reuse. Motivated by analysis, a joint transmit power and PCS threshold self-adaptation algorithm based on loss differentiation is proposed. Heuristics that address node starvation and fairness are also incorporated within the above (aggregate throughput maximization) framework to allow a flexible suite of approaches to network tuning. Elaborate simulations show that such joint adaptation algorithm can increase both total throughput and worst link throughput in HD WLAN greatly compared with PCS only adaptation without loss differentiation.