A traffic control system for IEEE 802.11 networks based on available bandwidth estimation

To support Quality of service (QoS)‐sensitive applications like real‐time video streaming in IEEE 802.11 networks, a MAC layer extension for QoS, IEEE 802.11e, has been recently ratified as a standard. This MAC layer solution, however, addresses only the issue of prioritized access to the wireless medium and leaves such issues as QoS guarantee and admission control to the traffic control systems at the higher layers. This paper presents an IP‐layer traffic control system for IEEE 802.11 networks based on available bandwidth estimation. We build an analytical model for estimating the available bandwidth by extending an existing throughput computation model, and implement a traffic control system that provides QoS guarantees and admission control by utilizing the estimated available bandwidth information. We have conducted extensive performance evaluation of the proposed scheme via both simulations and measurements in the real test‐bed. The experiment results show that our estimation model and traffic control system work accurately and effectively in various network load conditions without IEEE 802.11e. The presence of IEEE 802.11e will allow even more efficient QoS provision, as the proposed scheme and the MAC layer QoS support will complement each other. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Towards a classification of energy aware MAC protocols for wireless sensor networks

Power management is an important issue in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) because wireless sensor nodes are usually battery powered, and an efficient use of the available battery power becomes an important concern specially for those applications where the system is expected to operate for long durations. This necessity for energy efficient operation of a WSN has prompted the development of new protocols in all layers of the communication stack. Provided that, the radio transceiver is the most power consuming component of a typical sensor node, large gains can be achieved at the link layer where the medium access control (MAC) protocol controls the usage of the radio transceiver unit. MAC protocols for sensor networks differ greatly from typical wireless networks access protocols in many issues. MAC protocols for sensor networks must have built‐in power conservation, mobility management, and failure recovery strategies. Furthermore, sensor MAC protocols should make performance trade‐off between latency and throughput for a reduction in energy consumption to maximize the lifetime of the network. This is in general achieved through duty cycling the radio transceiver. Many MAC protocols with different objectives were proposed for wireless sensor networks in the literature. Most of these protocols take into account the energy efficiency as a main objective. There is much more innovative work should be done at the MAC layer to address the hard unsolved problems. In this paper, we first outline and discuss the specific requirements and design trade‐offs of a typical wireless sensor MAC protocol by describing the properties of WSN that affect the design of MAC layer protocols. Then, a typical collection of wireless sensor MAC protocols presented in the literature are surveyed, classified, and described emphasizing their advantages and disadvantages whenever possible. Finally, we present research directions and identify open issues for future medium access research. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impact of MAC frame length on energy efficiency in 6LowPAN

To reach necessary end-to-end connectivity between the Internet and wireless sensor networks （WSNs）, the Internet Engineering Task Force （IETF） IPv6 over low power wireless personal area network （6LowPAN） working group has been established and introduced an adaptation layer for integration of IEEE 802.15.4 physical layer/media access control （PHY/MAC） layers and the upper layers of any Intemet protocol （IP）-based networks, such as the Internet. The energy efficiency is one of the most important performance measures in WSNs because most sensor nodes are only battery powered so we should reduce the energy consumption to the lowest to extend the life of nodes. Therefore the determination of MAC frame length should be carefully considered since that the radio frequency （RF） module consumes most the energy of a sensor node meanwhile the MAC protocol is the direct controller of RF module. In this paper, we provide a star-shaped 6LowPAN non-beacon mode with unslotted carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance （CSMA/CA） mechanism to access to the channel and model the stochastic behavior of a target end node as the M/G/1 queuing system. Analytical expressions for some parameters such as channel busy probability, packet loss probability and energy efficiency are obtained in this paper and our analytical results can clearly show the impact of MAC frame length on the energy efficiency of a target node in both ideal and lossy channel.     

Medium access control protocols for wireless mobile ad hoc networks: issues and approaches

In this article, a comprehensive survey of the medium access control (MAC) approaches for wireless mobile ad hoc networks is presented. The complexity in MAC design for wireless ad hoc networks arises due to node mobility, radio link vulnerability and the lack of central coordination. A series of studies on MAC design has been conducted in the literature to improve medium access performance in different aspects as identified by the different performance metrics. Tradeoffs among the different performance metrics (such as between throughput and fairness) dictate the design of a suitable MAC protocol. We compare the different proposed MAC approaches, identify their problems and discuss the possible remedies. The interactions among the MAC and the higher layer protocols such as routing and transport layer protocols are discussed and some interesting research issues are also identified. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

QoS guarantee and provisioning at the contention-based wireless MAC layer in the IEEE 802.11e wireless LANs

This article investigates and provides novel solutions for a new research avenue to support QoS in contention-based distributed WLANs. Although QoS is easier to manage in centrally controlled and reservation-based MAC protocols, they are hardly implemented in today's products due to several reasons, such as their higher complexity and their inefficiency for normal data transmissions, lack of robustness, and the strong assumption of global synchronizations. Additionally, end users like contention-based protocols because they plug and play. Almost all end-user networks need a MAC layer, and the IEEE 802.11 WLAN and Ethernet have become widely deployed since these contention-based MAC protocols are simple, robust, and allow fast installation with minimal management and maintenance costs. There is a clear need to support QoS guarantees and provisioning at the contention-based MAC layer. QoS guarantee and bandwidth allocation schemes have been well studied for mobile cellular networks, in which bandwidth is deterministic in terms of number of channels by frequency division, time division, or code division. On the other hand, bandwidth allocation in contention-based distributed WLANs is extremely challenging due to the contention constraint, the packet-based network, and, most important, an unknown number of stations competing for access to the only channel available. As a consequence, both guaranteeing QoS and efficiently allocating bandwidth are challenging issues.     

Restoration of IP Networks by Using a Hybrid Interacting Mechanism Between Layer 2 & 3 in the Networks Over OA&M

The Internet generation infrastructure is growing and moving towards a consistency model of high-speed nodes interconnected by optical core networks. Therefore, the interaction between IP and optical network layers, specifically, the routing and signalling aspects, are maturing and they can lead to enhance the services and network performance. At the same time, a consensus has emerged in the industry on utilizing IP-based protocols for the optical control plane. This paper defines a new technique for IP over Optical networks (interacting between bottom layers), considering both the IP-based control plane for optical networks as well as IP-optical network interactions (together referred to as “IP over optical networks”). In this paper, a new technique is proposed that reduces recovery time by making an interoperation between the data link layer (layer 2) with the network layer (layer 3). The proposed technique enables layer 2 with layer 3 to make a hybrid mechanism that improves the recovery time in the network through two cases (1st-Detection and 2nd-Rerouting). The technique involves detecting failure in less time through layer 2 and rerouting traffic through an alternative path between source and destination by using a new algorithm in layer 3 to deliver data packets without the need to wait for the routing protocol to update the network topology and compute the routing table. In case of the network recovery, layer 2 has demonstrated its capability to detect failure extremely quickly shown through the immediate detection of the loss of signals for the link or node. The recovery mechanism, i.e., the rerouting mechanism, which leads the node, switches the data packets through an adjacent node to its destination via the life node. The latter is created by the proposed mechanism before the occurrence of the failure. The aim of this mechanism is to avoid loss of packets, improve QoS and improve recovery time as we have shown in the results shown below.     

Wireless ATM networks: technology status and future directions

The concept of “wireless ATM” (WATM), first proposed in 1992, is now being actively considered as a potential framework for new-generation wireless communication networks capable of supporting integrated, quality-of service (QoS) based multimedia services. In this review paper, we outline the technological rationale for wireless ATM, present a system-level architecture, and discuss key design issues for both mobile ATM switching infrastructure and radio access subsystems. The WATM radio access layer issues covered in this paper include: spectrum allocation; spectrum etiquette; modem technology; and medium access/data link control (MAC/DLC) protocols. Mobile ATM aspects such as ATM signaling extensions for handoff control, location management, and mobile QoS control are discussed. A summary of current wireless/mobile ATM technology development and standardization status is given, including an outline of our WATMnet prototype. The paper concludes with a discussion of future directions for wireless ATM technology such as Internet protocol (IP) integration and mobile multimedia terminals/applications     

On IP-over-WDM integration

Expanding Internet-based services are driving the need for evermore bandwidth in the network backbone. These needs will grow further as new real-time multimedia applications become more feasible and pervasive. Currently, there is no other technology on the horizon that can effectively meet such a demand for bandwidth in the transport infrastructure other than WDM technology. This technology enables incremental and quick provisioning up to and beyond two orders of magnitude of today's fiber bandwidth levels. This precludes the need to deploy additional cabling and having to contend with right-of-way issues, a key advantage. Hence, it is only natural that over time optical/WDM technology will migrate closer to the end users, from core to regional, metropolitan, and ultimately access networks. At present, WDM deployment is mostly point-to-point and uses SONET/SDH as the standard layer for interfacing to the higher layers of the protocol stack. However, large-scale efforts are underway to develop standards and products that will eliminate one or more of these intermediate layers (e.g., SONET/SDH, ATM) and run IP directly over the WDM layer. IP over WDM has been envisioned as the winning combination due to the ability of the IP to be the common revenue-generating convergence sublayer and WDM as a bandwidth-rich transport sublayer. Various important concerns still need to be addressed regarding IP-WDM integration. These include lightpath routing coupled with tighter interworkings with IP routing and resource management protocols, survivability provisioning, framing/monitoring solutions, and others     

QoS support for integrated services over CATV

Cable TV has emerged as a promising access network infrastructure for the delivery of voice, video, and high-speed data traffic. A central issue in the design of protocols for CATV networks is to support different levels of QoS for diverse user applications. While CATV service providers and equipment have standardized, in the so-called MCNS protocol, the basic network architecture and interfaces, issues in the MAC layer for QoS support are likely to be left for differentiation in vendor products. This article first presents an overview of the basic CATV network architectural assumptions and the set of QoS requirements for supporting integrated services over CATV. It then discusses a MAC layer scheduling protocol that can efficiently multiplex constant bit rate traffic, such as voice over IP with guaranteed delay bound, and best-effort traffic, such as data services with minimum bit rate guarantee, while achieving fairness on any excess available bandwidth. The performance of this algorithm is illustrated by simulation results using Opnet. We also discuss a dynamic polling mechanism that enhances the link utilization while preserving delay bounds for latency-critical traffic     

Mobility support in wireless Internet

The tremendous advancement and popularity of wireless access technologies necessitates the convergence of multimedia (audio, video, and text) services on a unified global (seamless) network infrastructure. Circuit-switched proprietary telecommunication networks are evolving toward more cost-effective and uniform packet-switched networks such as those based on IP. However, one of the key challenges for the deployment of such wireless Internet infrastructure is to efficiently manage user mobility. To provide seamless services to mobile users, several protocols have been proposed over the years targeting different layers in the network protocol stack. In this article we present a cross-layer perspective on the mobility protocols by identifying the key features of their design principles and performance issues. An analysis of the signaling overhead and handoff delay for some representative protocols in each layer is also presented. Our conclusion is that although the application layer protocol is worse than the protocols operating in the lower layers, in terms of handoff delay and signaling overhead, it is better suited as a potential mobility solution for the next-generation heterogeneous networks, if we consider such factors as protocol stack modification, infrastructure change, and inherent operational complexity.     

Intelligent Handoff for Mobile Wireless Internet

This paper presents an intelligent mobility management scheme for Mobile Wireless InterNet – MWIN. MWIN is a wireless service networks wherein its core network consisting of Internet routers and its access network can be built from any Internet-capable radio network. Two major standards are currently available for MWIN, i.e., the mobile IP and wireless LAN. Mobile IP solves address mobility problem with the Internet protocol while wireless LAN provides a wireless Internet access in the local area. However, both schemes solve problems independently at different layers, thereby some additional problems occur, e.g., delayed handoff, packet loss, and inefficient routing. This paper identifies these new problems and performs analyses and some real measurements on the handoff within MWIN. Then, a new handoff architecture that extends the features of both mobile IP and wireless LAN handoff mechanism was proposed. This new architecture consists of mobile IP extensions and a modified wireless LAN handoff algorithm. The effect of this enhancement provides a linkage between different layers for preventing packet loss and reducing handoff latency. Finally, some optimization issues regarding network planning and routing are addressed.     

A call admission control framework for voice over WLANs

In this article a call admission control framework is presented for voice over wireless local area networks (WLANs). The framework, called WLAN voice manager, manages admission control for voice over IP (VoIP) calls with WLANs as the access networks. WLAN voice manager interacts with WLAN medium access control (MAC) layer protocols, soft-switches (VoIP call agents), routers, and other network devices to perform end-to-end (ETE) quality of service (QoS) provisioning and control for VoIP calls originated from WLANs. By implementing the proposed WLAN voice manager in the WLAN access network, a two-level ETE VoIP QoS control mechanism can be achieved: level 1 QoS for voice traffic over WLAN medium access and level 2 QoS for ETE VoIP services in the networks with WLANs as the local access. The implementation challenges of this framework are discussed for both level 1 and level 2. Possible solutions to the implementation issues are proposed and other remaining open issues are also addressed.     

Industrial wireless sensor and actuator networks in industry 4.0: Exploring requirements,protocols, and challenges—A MAC survey

The vision to connect everyday physical objects to the Internet promises to create the Internet of Things (IoT), which is expected to integrate the diverse technologies such as sensors, actuators, radio frequency identification, communication technologies, and Internet protocols. Thus, IoT promises to transfer traditional industry to advance digital industry known as the Industry 4.0. At the core of the Industry 4.0 are the wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and wireless sensor and actuator networks (WSANs) that led to the development of industrial wireless sensor networks (IWSNs) and industrial wireless sensor and actuator networks (IWSANs). These networks play a central role of connecting machines, parts, products, and humans and create a diverse set of new applications to support intelligent and autonomous decision making. The IWSAN is a promising technology for numerous industrial applications because of their several potential benefits such as simple deployment, low cost, less complexity, and mobility support. However, despite such benefits, they impose several unique challenges at different layers of the protocol stack when deploying them for various monitoring and control applications in the Industry 4.0. In this article, we explore IWSAN, its applications, requirements, challenges, and solutions in the context of industrial control applications. Our main focus is on the medium access control (MAC) layer that can be exploited to satisfy such requirements. Our discussion presents extensive background study of the MAC schemes and it reviews the MAC protocols of the existing wireless standards and technologies. A number of application‐specific MAC protocols developed to support industrial applications, which are not part of these standards, are also elaborated. We rationalize to what extent the existing standards and protocols help in solving such requirements as laid down by the Industry 4.0. In the end, we emphasize on existing challenges and present important future directions.     

Low‐loss TCP/IP header compression for wireless networks

Wireless is becoming a popular way to connect mobile computers to the Internet and other networks. The bandwidth of wireless links will probably always be limited due to properties of the physical medium and regulatory limits on the use of frequencies for radio communication. Therefore, it is necessary for network protocols to utilize the available bandwidth efficiently. Headers of IP packets are growing and the bandwidth required for transmitting headers is increasing. With the coming of IPv6 the address size increases from 4 to 16 bytes and the basic IP header increases from 20 to 40 bytes. Moreover, most mobility schemes tunnel packets addressed to mobile hosts by adding an extra IP header or extra routing information, typically increasing the size of TCP/IPv4 headers to 60 bytes and TCP/IPv6 headers to 100 bytes. In this paper, we provide new header compression schemes for UDP/IP and TCP/IP protocols. We show how to reduce the size of UDP/IP headers by an order of magnitude, down to four to five bytes. Our method works over simplex links, lossy links, multi‐access links, and supports multicast communication. We also show how to generalize the most commonly used method for header compression for TCP/IPv4, developed by Jacobson, to IPv6 and multiple IP headers. The resulting scheme unfortunately reduces TCP throughput over lossy links due to unfavorable interaction with TCP's congestion control mechanisms. However, by adding two simple mechanisms the potential gain from header compression can be realized over lossy wireless networks as well as point‐to‐point modem links. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Neural bandwidth allocation function (NBAF) control scheme at WiMAX MAC layer interface

The paper proposes a bandwidth allocation scheme to be applied at the interface between upper layers (IP, in this paper) and Medium Access Control (MAC) layer over IEEE 802.16 protocol stack. The aim is to optimally tune the resource allocation to match objective QoS (Quality of Service) requirements. Traffic flows characterized by different performance requirements at the IP layer are conveyed to the IEEE 802.16 MAC layer. This process leads to the need for providing the necessary bandwidth at the MAC layer so that the traffic flow can receive the requested QoS. The proposed control algorithm is based on real measures processed by a neural network and it is studied within the framework of optimal bandwidth allocation and Call Admission Control in the presence of statistically heterogeneous flows. Specific implementation details are provided to match the application of the control algorithm by using the existing features of 802.16 request–grant protocol acting at MAC layer. The performance evaluation reported in the paper shows the quick reaction of the bandwidth allocation scheme to traffic variations and the advantage provided in the number of accepted calls. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An investigation into HFC MAC protocols: Mechanisms, implementation, and research issues

This study comprehensively reviews two HFC MAC protocols: Data-Over-Cable Service Interface Specifications (DOCSIS) and IEEE 802.14a. DOCSIS was approved by the ITU as a standard and is supported by many vendors. However, IEEE 802.14a remains a draft due to the delayed standardization process. After briefly introducing the features of HFC networks, the basic operations and mechanisms of these two MAC protocols are then examined. Both standards view an upstream channel as a stream of minislots and have similar mechanisms for upstream bandwidth management, virtual queue, downstream in MPEG-2 format, data-linklayer security, and ranging. However, the standards adopt different mechanisms for upstream access modes, QoS support, and collision resolution. Moreover, the implementation issues over hardware and software design for DOCSIS networks are investigated. This work also identifies the research issues in HFC MAC protocols, particularly allocation and scheduling issues.     

A cross-layer scheme for medium access control with QoS guaranteeing for Ad hoc networks

1 Introduction medium access control (MAC) protocols play a crucial role in determining the performance of Ad hoc networks. However, the design of MAC protocols for Ad hoc networks has traditionally been separated from that of the physical layer. In most …     

A survey of current architectures for connecting wireless mobile ad hoc networks to the Internet

Connecting wired and wireless networks, and particularly mobile wireless ad hoc networks (MANETs) and the global Internet, is attractive in real‐world scenarios due to its usefulness and praticality. Because of the various architectural mismatches between the Internet and MANETs with regard to their communication topology, routing protocols, and operation, it is necessary to introduce a hybrid interface capable of connecting to the Internet using Mobile IP protocol and to MANETs owing to an ad hoc routing protocol. Specifically, the approaches available in the literature have introduced updated versions of Mobile IP agents or access points at the edge of the Internet to help MANET nodes get multi‐hop wireless Internet access. The main differences in the existing approaches concern the type of ad hoc routing protocol as well as the switching algorithm used by MANET nodes to change their current Mobile IP agents based on specific switching criteria. This paper surveys a variety of approaches to providing multi‐hop wireless Internet access to MANET nodes. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

MAC Protocol of a Next-Generation MAN Architecture Based on WDM and All-Optical Packet Switching

As media converge to the Internet, MANs will face new demands not only in terms of bandwidth, but also in terms of services. We describe a next generation MAN architecture that has been designed within Dutch project Flamingo. Based on all-optical packet switching, this architecture supports one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-one communications in the optical domain. Specifically, we focus on the MAC layer of the network. We describe the access and fairness protocols and explain how the all-optical nature of the architecture affects the design of these protocols. We also discuss some performance results that have been obtained via simulation.     

End-to-end QoS resource management for an IP-based DWDM access network

The ever-increasing use of broad-band Internet and complex multimedia applications is pushing fiber closer and closer to the homes. Within the European project IST HARMONICS (Hybrid Access Reconfigurable Multi-wavelength Optical Networks for IP-based Communication Services), an optical access feeder network and resource management framework were developed that tackle this demand for bandwidth and the desire to stimulate the convergence of last-mile access technologies. To cope with the lack of bandwidth in the access and last-mile networks and the different needs of applications and users, the developed management system provides end-to-end quality of service (QoS) while integrating multiple technologies. In this paper, a detailed overview of the end-to-end QoS management framework and novel time slot/wavelength MAC protocol for the optical feeder network is given. End-to-end QoS is based on Differentiated services (DiffServ) at layer 3, various QoS supporting technologies at layer 2, and QoS mappings between both layers. The paper will also focus on the field trial results of the HARMONICS project and give some guidelines for possible problems and solutions in this area.