基于无线信道的冲突分解算法仿真研究

目前,无线局域网(WLAN)中的媒体接入控制层(MAC)广泛采用基于IEEE802.11的二进制指数回退算法(BEB)的DCF协议.当WLAN中的节点数目迅速增加时,该协议存在系统吞吐量会急剧降低,网络性能变差的缺点.详细分析了无线局域网中IEEE 802.11MAC层的二进制退避协议,指出原协议在进行冲突处理上的不足,并结合树型分解算法(TSA)和快速分解算法(FCR),提出一种改进的树型冲突分解算法(ITSA).并用MATLAB仿真了CSMA/CA协议和ITSA算法.分析和仿真结果证明,与IEEE 802.11等协议采用的二进制指数退避算法相比,该算法能较大的提高系统吞吐量.     

Saturated throughput analysis of IEEE 802.11e EDCA

IEEE 802.11e standard has been published to introduce quality of service (QoS) support to the conventional IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN). Enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) is used as the fundamental access mechanism for the medium access control (MAC) layer in IEEE 802.11e. In this paper, a novel Markov chain based model with a simple architecture for EDCA performance analysis under the saturated traffic load is proposed. Compared with the existing analytical models of EDCA, the proposed model incorporates more features of EDCA into the analysis. Firstly, we analyze the effect of using different arbitration interframe spaces (AIFSs) on the performance of EDCA. That is, the time interval from the end of the busy channel can be classified into different contention zones based on the different AIFSs used by different sets of stations, and these different sets of stations may have different transmission probabilities in the same contention zone. Secondly, we analyze the possibility that a station’s backoff procedure may be suspended due to transmission from other stations. We consider that the contention zone specific transmission probability caused by the use of different AIFSs can affect the occurrence and the duration of the backoff suspension procedure. Based on the proposed model, saturated throughput of EDCA is analyzed. Simulation study is performed, which demonstrates that the proposed model has better accuracy than those in the literature.     

Denial-of-Service attacks and countermeasures in IEEE 802.11 wireless networks

IEEE 802.11 access points deployed in shopping malls, university campuses, crowded streets, airports, and many other locations provide ubiquitous Internet access to millions of stations. However, these hot spots are vulnerable to Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks due to the broadcast nature of wireless communication. It does not require specialized hardware or particularly high level of experience to render 802.11 networks inoperable through DoS attacks. Standard off-the-shelf equipment is sufficient for a malicious station to disrupt the service between access points and stations. In this paper we present a systematic survey of DoS attacks, which exploits MAC and physical layer vulnerabilities of 802.11 networks. Available countermeasures against DoS attacks are discussed and compared. Future research directions and open issues are also discussed.     

A novel Effective Capacity-based framework for providing statistical QoS guarantees in IEEE 802.11 WLANs

This article proposes a performance model of the IEEE 802.11 MAC layer that employs the notion of Effective Capacity. In particular, the paper establishes that an IEEE 802.11 mobile station can be regarded as a Semi-Markovian bursty server of the On/Off type, with known distributions for the On and Off periods, and subsequently applies known results for Semi-Markovian models to derive the Effective Capacity function of this On/Off server. The general Effective Bandwidth/Capacity theory can then be used for computing buffer overflow probabilities and for employing simple traffic control policies to enforce related QoS guarantees. The policies guarantee a soft bound on the buffer overflow probability and are suitable for real-time traffic control over WLANs. The Effective Capacity model of IEEE 802.11 stations is originally developed by assuming that the other competing stations are saturated. This is a conservative assumption that becomes very accurate in a highly loaded network. Subsequently, the model is adapted to encompass lightly loaded networks as well. In the adapted model, each mobile station directly measures a few model parameters, instead of calculating them on the basis of the saturation assumption, and uses these measurements in the computation of its Effective Capacity function. The theoretical results are checked against simulations, validating the appropriateness of the model.     

Runtime optimization of IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs performance

IEEE 802.11 is the standard for wireless local area networks (WLANs) promoted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Wireless technologies in the LAN environment are becoming increasingly important and the IEEE 802.11 is the most mature technology to date. Previous works have pointed out that the standard protocol can be very inefficient and that an appropriate tuning of its congestion control mechanism (i.e., the backoff algorithm) can drive the IEEE 802.11 protocol close to its optimal behavior. To perform this tuning, a station must have exact knowledge of the network contention level; unfortunately, in a real case, a station cannot have exact knowledge of the network contention level (i.e., number of active stations and length of the message transmitted on the channel), but it, at most, can estimate it. We present and evaluate a distributed mechanism for contention control in IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs. Our mechanism, named asymptotically optimal backoff (AOB), dynamically adapts the backoff window size to the current network contention level and guarantees that an IEEE 802.11 WLAN asymptotically achieves its optimal channel utilization. The AOB mechanism measures the network contention level by using two simple estimates: the slot utilization and the average size of transmitted frames. These estimates are simple and can be obtained by exploiting information that is already available in the standard protocol. AOB can be used to extend the standard 802.11 access mechanism without requiring any additional hardware. The performance of the IEEE 802.11 protocol, with and without the AOB mechanism, is investigated through simulation. Simulation results indicate that our mechanism is very effective, robust, and has traffic differentiation potentialities.     

无线网络中分布式协调功能的改进

文中提出了一种简单而有效的方法动态的估计无线网络中的活动节点数，并根据估计出的活动节点数调整MAC层的初始竞争窗口大小，从而降低冲突概率，提高吞吐率性能。而且，该方法没有增加任何控制开销。仿真结果表明，改进后的IEEE 802．11分布式协调功能机制的性能有明显改善。     

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.     

On scaling the IEEE 802.11 to facilitate scalable wireless networks

The IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol has gained widespread popularity and has been adopted as the de-facto layer 2 protocol for wireless local area networks (WLANs). However, it is well known that as the number of competing stations increases, the performance of the protocol degrades dramatically. Given the explosive growth in WLANs’ usage, the question of how to sustain each user’s perceived performance when a large number of competing stations are present, is an important and challenging open research problem.Motivated by this, in this paper we analyze the behavior of 802.11-based WLANs as the number of competing stations increases, and attempt to provide concrete answers to the following fundamental questions: (i) is there a set of system and protocol parameters that we can scale in order to sustain each individual user’s perceived performance, and (ii) what is the minimum scaling factor?Using theoretical analysis coupled with extensive simulations we show that such a set of parameters exists, and that the minimum scaling factor is equal to the factor by which the number of users increases. Our results reveal several important scaling properties that exist in today’s 802.11-based wireless networks, and set guidelines for designing future versions of such networks that can efficiently support a very large number of users.     

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.     

下一代WLAN分组目标唤醒时间调度改进方案

密集WLAN(Wireless Local Area Network,无线局域网)中,大规模站点同时接入信道引起激烈竞争,从而导致网络性能急剧下滑.IEEE工作组着手研发下一代WLAN标准IEEE 802.11ax,该标准结合基于正交频分复用多址技术提出了上行多用户随机接入和广播目标唤醒时间(Target Wake Time,TWT)机制.为降低碰撞和减轻干扰,进一步提高吞吐率和能效,本文结合广播TWT机制提出了一种基于网络密度的改进分组信道接入方案.该方案在原有广播TWT调度方法的基础上,依据网络密度选择不同的休眠决策策略;通过将站点分配在不同TWT服务期来控制同时服务站点数并确定站点分组,在TWT服务期内达到最大化吞吐率的目标,实现高效的信道接入.仿真结果分析表明所提策略具有更高的吞吐率和能效.     

Revealing the problems with 802.11 medium access control protocol in multi-hop wireless ad hoc networks

The IEEE 802.11 medium access control (MAC) protocol is a standard for wireless LANs, it is also widely used in almost all test beds and simulations for the research in wireless mobile multi-hop ad hoc networks. However, this protocol was not designed for multi-hop networks. Although it can support some ad hoc network architecture, it is not intended to support the wireless mobile ad hoc network, in which multi-hop connectivity is one of the most prominent features. In this paper, we focus on the following question: can IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol function well in multi-hop networks? By presenting several serious problems encountered in transmission control protocol (TCP) connections in an IEEE 802.11 based multi-hop network, we show that the current TCP protocol does not work well above the current 802.11 MAC layer. The relevant problems include the TCP instability problem found in this kind of network, the severe unfairness problem, and the incompatibility problem. We illustrate that all these problems are rooted in the MAC layer. Furthermore, by revealing the in-depth cause of these problems, we conclude that the current version of this wireless LAN protocol does not function well in multi-hop ad hoc networks. We thus doubt whether the current WaveLAN based system is workable as a mobile multi-hop ad hoc test bed. All the results shown in this paper are based on NS2 simulations, and are compatible with the results from the OPNET simulations.     

IEEE 802.11e EDCA在Ad Hoc网络中应用仿真分析

IEEE 802.11e EDCA协议通过采用MAC层业务区分的方式,提供网络的QoS支持.分析并比较了802.11e EDCA对802.11 DCF的改进,并通过NS2仿真分析EDCA在Ad Hoc网络中的应用情况,进一步讨论并仿真实现了对EDCA协议参数的分析.仿真结果表明,EDCA在多跳Ad Hoc网络中仍保持了其有效性,实现业务区分并提高了网络的吞吐量等性能,同时协议参数的不同将极大的影响系统性能,通过优化设置参数可以进一步提高系统性能.     

Performance analysis of the IEEE 802.11 DCF in the presence of the hidden stations

In this paper, we present an analytical model to evaluate the hidden station effect on the performance of the IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) in both non-saturation and saturation condition. DCF is a random channel-access scheme based on Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) method and the exponential backoff procedure. DCF is widely used and can support both wireless network with an access point and ad hoc wireless network because of its random channel-access method. On the other hand, this method unavoidably suffers the hidden station effect that causes significant performance degradation. As shown in this paper, hidden stations occur frequently in real-world settings, and the performance impact on the 802.11 DCF is a significant concern, but it has not been adequately studied. We study this problem through a spatial–temporal analysis and a Markov chain model. Our model generalizes the existing work on the performance modeling of 802.11 DCF for both non-saturation and saturation conditions. The scenario of no hidden station can be considered as a special case in our model. The performance of our model is evaluated by comparison with ns-2 simulations.     

Transparent and scalable terminal mobility for vehicular networks

Future public transportation systems will provide broadband access to passengers, carrying legacy terminals with 802.11 connectivity. Passengers will be able to communicate with the Internet and with each other, while connected to 802.11 Access Points deployed in vehicles and bus stops/metro stations, and without requiring special mobility or routing protocols to run in their terminals. Existing solutions, such as 802.11s and OLSR, are not efficient and do not scale to large networks, thereby requiring the network to be segmented in many small areas, causing the terminals to change IP address when moving between areas.This paper presents WiMetroNet, a large mesh network of mobile routers (Rbridges) operating at layer 2.5 over heterogeneous wireless technologies. This architecture contains an efficient user plane that optimizes the transport of DHCP and ARP traffic, and provides a transparent terminal mobility solution using techniques that minimize the routing overhead for large networks. We offer two techniques to reduce routing overhead associated with terminal mobility. One approach is based on TTL-limited flooding of a routing message and on the concept of forwarding packets only to the vicinity of the last known location of the terminal, and then forward the packets to a new location of the terminal. The other technique lets the network remain unaware for a very long time that the terminal has moved; only when packets arrive at the old PoA does the PoA send back a “binding update” message to the correspondent node, to correct the route for future packets for the same terminal.Simulation and analytical results are presented, and the routing protocol is shown to scale to large networks with good user plane results, namely packet delivery rate, delay, and handover interruption time.     

Evaluating transport protocol performance over a wireless mesh backbone

IEEE 802.11n wireless physical layer technology increases the deployment of high throughput wireless indoor mesh backbones for ubiquitous Internet connectivity at the urban and metropolitan areas. Most of the network traffic flows in today’s Internet use ‘Transmission Control Protocol’ (TCP) as the transport layer protocol. There has been extensive works that deal with TCP issues over wireless mesh networks as well as noisy wireless channels. Further, IEEE 802.11n is well known for its susceptibility to increased channel losses during high data rate communication. This paper investigates the dynamics of an end-to-end transport layer protocol like TCP in the presence of burst and correlated losses during IEEE 802.11n high data rate communication, while maintaining fairness among all the end-to-end flows. For this purpose, we evaluate four TCP variants-Loss Tolerant TCP (LT-TCP), Network Coded TCP (TCP/NC), TCP-Horizon and Wireless Control Protocol (WCP), where the first two protocols are known to perform very well in extreme lossy networks, and the last two are specifically designed for mesh networks. Our evaluation shows that WCP performs better in a IEEE 802.11n supported mesh networks compared to other three variants. However, WCP also results in negative impact at high data rates, where end-to-end goodput drops with the increase in physical data rate. The analysis of the results reveals that explicit loss notifications and flow balancing are not sufficient to improve transport protocol performance in an IEEE 802.11n supported mesh backbone, rather a specific mechanism is required to synchronize the transport queue management with lower layer scheduling that depends on IEEE 802.11n features, like channel bonding and frame aggregation. The findings of this paper give the direction to design a new transport protocol that can utilize the full capacity of IEEE 802.11n mesh backbone.     

不同Mac接入机制的AODV路由协议性能分析

为了提高网络的综合性能,充分考虑了数据链路层和网络层的影响因素。对比分析了不同Mac接入协议的切换方法,为无线自组网络选择了一个合适的路由和接入协议。通过在NS-2中仿真Mac层的802.11a和802.11Ext路由场景,对AODV协议的归一化路由开销、路由发现频率、端到端平均时延以及数据分组投递率进行了全面的分析比较。结果表明,802.11Ext接入协议具有明显的优势特点,更加稳定、更适合移动网络。     

Design and evaluation of a novel MAC layer handoff protocol for IEEE 802.11 wireless networks

In recent years, the IEEE 802.11 wireless network family has become one of the most important set of standards in the wireless communications industry. IEEE 802.11 compliant devices are inexpensive and easier to configure and deploy than other wireless technologies. In an IEEE 802.11 wireless network, wireless terminals can move freely. As a result, when the wireless terminal moves away from its current access point, it must switch to another access point to maintain the active connection. This is known as the MAC layer handoff process. MAC layer handoff latency should be minimized to support real-time applications and to provide mobile devices with seamless roaming in IEEE 802.11 wireless networks. This paper proposes a novel MAC layer handoff protocol over IEEE 802.11 wireless networks by introducing advertisement messages sent from other mobile nodes and from which wireless terminals are able to receive the information of access points in their neighborhood. A mobile node can try to associate with access points based on the prediction before starting the probe process. The experimental results demonstrate that our solution can reduce MAC layer handoff latency to meet the requirements of real-time applications.     

Energy-conservation in 802.11 WLANs via transmission-strategy-aware airtime allocation

In a typical 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN), different wireless stations may communicate with the access point (AP) with different transmission rates, transmit-power levels, and data payload sizes. Such phenomenon is often referred to as transmission-strategy diversity. In this paper, we study the energy-conservation problem in 802.11 WLANs in the presence of transmission-strategy diversity. This problem is addressed from a unique angle – the system-level fairness which is quite different from most of current research that focuses on improving the performance of each individual wireless station. To emphasize fair energy consumption among contending stations, we introduce a new fairness notion, called energy-conservation fairness, which is in sharp contrast to the conventional throughput fairness and airtime fairness. Another contribution of this paper is an energy-efficient scheme that allocates airtime shares to contending stations so as to achieve combined airtime and energy-conservation fairness. Our simulation results show that, when the energy-conservation fairness is considered, both aggregate system throughput and overall system energy-efficiency can be improved significantly with all contending stations consuming a similar amount of energy.     

PABM-EDCF: parameter adaptive bi-directional mapping mechanism for video transmission over WSNs

To support and keep high quality of video transmission over wireless sensor networks, this paper proposes a parameter adaptive bi-directional cross-layer mapping algorithm on the basis of the operation mechanism of IEEE 802.11e Enhanced Distributed Coordination Function (EDCF) supporting video service differentiation, named PABM-EDCF. Instead of classifying video data to a specific access category in 802.11e network, our proposed adaptive cross-layer scheme makes use of the hierarchy characteristic of video stream, dynamically maps video data to the appropriate access categories according to both the significance of the different video frames and the network traffic load. The significance passes from the application layer to the media access layer through a cross-layer architecture. In order to prevent the network congestion and keep the high transmission quality, the proposed algorithm adopts bi-directional floating mapping algorithm and congestion awareness mechanism based on the queue length and frame types. The mapping parameters are updated according to the network condition in time. Our simulation results indicate: the proposed method (a) improves the video transmission quality; (b) optimizes the management and utilization of queue resources; and (c) yields superior performance (under different loads) over 802.11e, static mapping and adaptive mapping schemes.     

Orthogonal signaling-based queue status investigation method in IEEE 802.11

IEEE 802.11 specifies four different medium access control (MAC) protocols to coordinate multiple access in a wireless local area network (WLAN). Since several tens of stations can operate in a WLAN, the performance of MAC protocols is important for overall network efficiency. It has been observed that the IEEE 802.11 MAC protocols can be improved by knowing which station has a non-empty queue, i.e., queue status. The point coordination function (PCF) can use this information to avoid polling a station that has no pending data. The HCF controlled channel access can adapt polling parameters based on queue status information, especially when scheduling a bursty and variable bit-rate traffic. Previously suggested methods are rather limited in terms of accuracy and efficiency.In this paper, we propose a novel method to investigate the queue status of multiple stations by exploiting orthogonal signaling. With synchronous transmission of orthogonal codes and symbol level signal processing, the method allows all of the associated stations to report their queue status at the same time. Challenges that can arise in the implementation of the proposed method are identified, and their solutions are suggested. The feasibility of detecting orthogonal signals is thoroughly tested on a realistic channel model. To demonstrate the performance improvement of a MAC protocol, we applied the proposed method to PCF. Both analysis and simulation show that the modified PCF significantly outperforms not only the original PCF but also other previously suggested PCF enhancements.