Modeling TCP SACK performance over wireless channels with semi-reliable ARQ/FEC

Providing reliable data communications over wireless channels is a challenging task because time-varying wireless channel characteristics often lead to bit errors. These errors result in loss of IP packets and, consequently, TCP segments encapsulated into these packets. Since TCP cannot distinguish packet losses due to bit corruption from those due to network congestion, any packet loss caused by wireless channel impairments leads to unnecessary execution of the TCP congestion control algorithms and, hence, sub-optimal performance. Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) and Forward Error Correction (FEC) try to improve communication reliability and reduce packet losses by detecting and recovering corrupted bits. Most analytical models that studied the effect of ARQ and FEC on TCP performance assumed that the ARQ scheme is perfectly persistent (i.e., completely reliable), thus a frame is always successfully transmitted irrespective of the number of transmission attempts it takes. In this paper, we develop an analytical cross-layer model for a TCP connection running over a wireless channel with a semi-reliable ARQ scheme, where the amount of transmission attempts is limited by some number. The model allows to evaluate the joint effect of stochastic properties of the wireless channel characteristics and various implementation-specific parameters on TCP performance, which makes it suitable for performance optimization studies. The input parameters include the bit error rate, the value of the normalized autocorrelation function of bit error observations at lag 1, the strength of the FEC code, the persistency of ARQ, the size of protocol data units at different layers, the raw data rate of the wireless channel, and the bottleneck link buffer size.     

Impact of traffic localization on communication rates in ad-hoc networks

The effect of traffic distribution on communication rates and receiver complexity in ad-hoc networks is addressed, considering a network with constant density of users and a certain traffic model. Information theoretic upper bounds on communication rates are derived under an assumption that transmitting nodes as well as receiving nodes cooperate. It is shown that for the case of large signal attenuation the bounds hold even when the cooperation among users is limited to a certain region of the network domain. Furthermore, achievability bounds on communication rates are derived. The bounds rely on two proposed local cooperation strategies. A comparison shows that the upper bounds are tight and closely follow the achievability results. Finally, the impact of traffic localization on the receiver complexity is addressed.     

Achieving seamless handoffs via backhaul support in Wireless Mesh Networks

In Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs), mobile clients may experience frequent handoffs due to the relatively small transmission range of the mesh routers. Each handoff may lead to packet delays and/or packet losses, which limits the performance of real-time applications over WMNs. In this work, we propose BASH—a Backhaul-Aided Seamless Handoff scheme. BASH takes advantage of the wireless backhaul feature of WMNs, and allows a mobile station to directly access the backhaul channel to probe the neighboring mesh routers. Our work shows that by utilizing the wireless backhaul, BASH (1) reduces the probing latency and, thus, the Layer-2 handoff latency; (2) allows partial overlap of the Layer-2 and Layer-3 handoffs, reducing the overall handoff latency; and (3) shortens the authentication latency by utilizing the transitivity of trust relationship. The experimental results show that BASH achieves an average Layer-2 handoff of 8.9 ms, which supports real-time applications during the handoff.     

Characterization,Cathodoluminescence, and Field‐Emission Properties of Morphology‐Tunable CdS Micro/Nanostructures

High‐quality, uniform one‐dimensional CdS micro/nanostructures with different morphologies—microrods, sub‐microwires and nanotips—are fabricated through an easy and effective thermal evaporation process. Their structural, cathodoluminescence and field‐emission properties are systematically investigated. Microrods and nanotips exhibit sharp near‐band‐edge emission and broad deep‐level emission, whereas sub‐microwires show only the deep‐level emission. A significant decrease in a deep‐level/near‐band‐edge intensity ratio is observed along a tapered nanotip towards a smaller diameter part. This behavior is understood by consideration of defect concentrations in the nanotips, as analyzed with high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy. Field‐emission measurements show that the nanotips possess the best field‐emission characteristics among all 1D CdS nanostructures reported to date, with a relatively low turn‐on field of 5.28 V µm^?1 and the highest field‐enhancement factor of 4 819. The field‐enhancement factor, turn‐on and threshold fields are discussed related to structure morphology and vacuum gap variations under emission.     

Superparamagnetic Ag@Co‐Nanocomposites on Granulated Cation Exchange Polymeric Matrices with Enhanced Antibacterial Activity for the Environmentally Safe Purification of Water

Cation exchange polymeric matrices are widely used in water treatment protocols to reduce the mineral content of hard waters, even for human consumption. However, they are not antibacterial and flowing bacteria can be trapped in their structures and proliferate, thus acting as microbial contamination sources. Here, Ag@Co‐nanoparticles (Ag@Co‐NPs) with a low‐cost superparamagnetic Co⁰‐core and an antibacterial Ag‐shell are synthesized on granulated cation exchange polymeric matrices under soft reaction conditions. The presence of these NPs provides the final nanocomposite (NC) with additional functionalities (superparamagnetism and antibacterial activity) making it ideal for water purification applications. Ag@Co‐NPs are synthesized in situ on four cation exchange polymeric matrices containing either strong (sulfonic) or weak (carboxylic) acid functional groups homogeneously distributed (C‐type) or concentrated on an external shell (SST‐type) by the intermatrix synthesis (IMS) method. The NCs are characterized (metal content, NP size and distribution, metal oxidative state, and metal release) and evaluated for water purification applications.