TCP performance optimization in multi-cell WLANs

Though significant attention has been given to understanding the performance of a single-cell WLAN, performance evaluation of a group of interfering basic service sets (BSSs) within an extended service set (ESS) is still an open area. In this paper, we first demonstrate that a severe throughput imbalance occurs between downlink TCP flows even in the simplest of multi-cell WLANs via simulation and real world experiments; then, to solve this unfairness problem, we derive an analytical model that describes the interaction between TCP flows at the MAC layer, and formulate a throughput allocation problem as a nonlinear optimization problem subject to certain fairness requirements. Our formulation considers real world complexity such as hidden terminals, packet transmission retry limit, and the unique characteristics of TCP traffic. Solving our optimization problem yields the optimal MAC layer contention window settings that can lead each TCP flow to its target end-to-end throughput without the need for any per-flow queuing nor modification of the TCP sender. Simulation results show that our approach can achieve a fair allocation on the end-to-end throughput and attest to the accuracy of our proposed method.     

IEEE 802.11无线局域网的TCP性能分析和改进

在分析IEEE 802.11无线局域网媒体接入控制（MAC）协议和传输控制协议（TCP）性能的基础上,提出了改进的MAC协议：BDCF.IEEE 802.11分布式协调功能（DCF）只支持前向数据传输,即数据帧只能由发送方传送到接收方.BDCF利用IEEE 802.11点协调功能（PCF）提供的数据帧格式,可以实现信息的双向传输,即收发双方相互交换数据帧.因此BDCF更适合传输面向连接的TCP业务.BDCF与IEEE 802.11完全兼容.仿真结果表明：BDCF可以提高网络吞吐量和降低数据帧的时延,理论分析结果基本准确.     

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。     

无线局域网MAC机制对TCP性能的影响分析

通过分析和比较IEEE802.11无线局域网分别采用3种典型MAC机制时的TCP性能,深入研究了MAC机制对无线局域网中TCP性能的影响.仿真结果表明,由MAC机制所决定的信道冲突率、MAC帧丢失率、MAC帧传输时延抖动幅度和频率、网络吞吐量和公平性将直接影响无线局域网中TCP的吞吐量、公平性和稳定性.     

DCF+: An Enhancement for Reliable Transport Protocol over WLAN

Distributed Coordination Function (DCF)is the basis of the IEEE 802.11 WLAN MAC protocols .This paper proposes a scheme named DCF ,whic can be regarded as an option to DCF,to enhance the performance of reliable transport protocol over WLAN.To analyze the performance of DCF and DCF ,this paper also introduces and analytical model to compute the saturated throughput performance of WLAN.Compared with other models,this model is more accurate ,which is verified by elaborate simulations.Moreover,DCF is shown to be able to improve the performance of TCP over WLAN by both modeling and simulations.     

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.     

差错信道下无线局域网的自适应MAC协议

深入分析了差错信道下802.11DCF在饱和状态下的条件冲突概率对吞吐量的影响.研究表明,在基本接入模式下,对于给定的网络配置,存在最优的条件冲突概率使饱和吞吐量最大,并且该最优值近似与站点数、误码率及分组负载长度(100～4000B)无关.在此基础上,提出一种信道自适应MAC协议,其中主要包括竞争窗口调整方法和帧长控制机制,前者主要通过调节竞争窗口使条件冲突概率接近最优值,后者根据信道的误码率选择最优帧长.分析和仿真结果表明,与标准DCF及其优化算法(SBEB和OPL)相比较,该协议在差错信道下不仅能有效改善吞吐量,同时对信道与负载条件的变化表现出良好的适应能力.     

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.     

ADD:一种无线局域网MAC层竞争窗口退避算法

在无线局域网(WLANs)中,介质访问控制(MAC)协议的设计是一个核心的问题。MAC协议应该满足较高的吞吐量和较好的公平性等要求。根据802.11分布式协同函数(DCF),提出了一种新的高效的竞争窗口(CW)处理机制,称作自适应倍乘增加倍乘减小算法(ADD)。该算法的基本思想如下:每个站点在成功地连续发送n个数据包后,其MAC层的竞争窗口减小为原值的一半,而且n的值根据接入节点(AP)的瞬时流量自适应地调节。大量仿真实验表明:该算法可以通过有效地降低站点之间的冲突概率,来增加系统整体的吞吐量,同时增加不同站点之间的公平性。     

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.     

A performance analysis of block ACK scheme for IEEE 802.11e networks

The demand for the IEEE 802.11 wireless local-area networks (WLANs) has been drastically increasing along with many emerging applications and services over WLAN. However, the IEEE 802.11 medium access control (MAC) is known to be limited in terms of its throughput performance due to the high MAC overhead, such as interframe spaces (IFS) or per-frame based acknowledgement (ACK) frame transmissions. The IEEE 802.11e MAC introduces the block ACK scheme for improving the system efficiency of the WLAN. Using the block ACK scheme can reduce the ACK transmission overhead by integrating multiple ACKs for a number of data frames into a bitmap that is contained in a block ACK frame, thus increasing the MAC efficiency.In this paper, we mathematically analyze the throughput and delay performance of the IEEE 802.11e block ACK scheme in an erroneous channel environment. Our extensive ns-2 simulation results validate the accuracy of our analytical model and they further demonstrate that the block ACK scheme enhances the MAC throughput performance at the cost of the resequencing delay at the receiving buffer.     

无线自组网络中TCP流公平性的分析与改进

研究了TCP(transmission control protocol)流在多跳无线自组网络中的公平性问题,发现IEEE802.11DCF协议在此环境下会导致严重的不公平性,即部分节点垄断了网络带宽而其他节点被饿死.首先,通过仿真分析了产生TCP流不公平性的原因,指出其根源在于MAC(media access and control)协议的不公平性,同时,TCP的超时机制加剧了不公平性的产生;然后,利用概率模型定量分析了TCP不公平性与MAC协议参数之间的关系,发现TCP流的公平性与TCP报文长度直接相关,并且增加MAC协议初始竞争窗口的大小能够有效提高公平性.据此,提出了一种根据TCP报文长度动态调节初始回退窗口大小的自适应回退MAC协议改进算法.理论分析和仿真表明,该算法在很大程度上可以有效缓解不公平性问题的产生,并且不会引起网络吞吐量的严重降低.     

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。     

802.11无线接入TCP连接本地延迟抖动的理论模型*

为了分析802.11接入网类型对延迟抖动的影响,基于对802.11DCF（distributed coordinated function）信道访问机制的分析与马尔可夫模型,提出一个802.11无线接入的TCP连接本地延迟抖动（local jitter,LJITTER）分布模型。实际网络的测试实验数据证明,该模型非常吻合802.11无线接入的TCP LJITTER实际分布。该模型可以用于接入网类型区分、数据包流量分类、TCP协议改进与非法AP检测。     

Supporting service differentiation with enhancements of the IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol:Models and analysis

As one of the fastest growing wireless access technologies, wireless LANs must evolve to support adequate degrees of service differentiation. Unfortunately, cur-rent WLAN standards like IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) lack this ability. Work is in progress to define an enhanced version capable of support-ing QoS for multimedia traffic at the MAC layer. In this paper, we aim at gaining insight into three mechanisms to differentiate among traffic categories, i.e., differ-entiating the minimum contention window size, the Inter-Frame Spacing (IFS), and the length of the packet payload according to the priority of different traffic cate-gories. We propose an analysis model to compute the throughput and packet transmission delays. In addition, we derive approximations to obtain simpler but more meaningful relationships among different parameters. Comparisons with discrete-event simulation results show that good accuracy of performance evalua-tion can be achieved by using the proposed analysis model.     

Ad Hoc网络中基于DCF的MAC协议能量效率分析

素的前提下,提出了一种对分布式协调功能DCF的基本访问控制、RTS/CTS访问控制机制以及混合访问控制机制的能量效率进行分析的有效方法,并研究了网络中终端数量、平均数据包长度、最大后退次数以及初始竞争窗口大小对能量效率的影响。仿真结果验证了该方法的正确性和有效性。     

Achieving optimal performance in IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs with the combination of link adaptation and adaptive backoff

IEEE 802.11 is one of the most popular wireless LAN standards [Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) specifications, IEEE Standard 802.11, August 1999]. In the paper, we propose a simple analytical model, which helps one obtain deep insight into the mechanism of achieving optimal performance by using IEEE 802.11 DCF (Distributed Coordination Function) protocol. The first contribution of this paper is the analysis of the optimal operation point where maximum goodput can be achieved. Through the analysis, we answer some fundamental questions about the existence and the uniqueness of the optimal operation point; about the maximum system goodput can be achieved; about the existence of a simple rule to check out if the system operates under the optimal state or not; and how do the data transmission rates, which is dependent on the selected physical transmission mode, and packet transmission errors, caused by channel fading and (or) interference, affect the final system performance. Another contribution is the proposal of a simple distributed adaptive scheme “LABS” (i.e., Link adaptation and Adaptive Backoff Scheme), which makes the system operate under the optimal operation point and, at the same time, achieves some pre-defined target service differentiation ratio between different traffic flows. In the LABS, two adaptive schemes are combined: one is the so called “Link Adaptation” scheme, which dynamically selects an optimal modulation mode at a given time so as to improve the achieved system goodput; the other one is the so called “Adaptive Backoff” scheme, which adaptively adjusts the minimum contention window size of each sending node to guarantee that the system operates under (or near) the optimal operation point. Results obtained in the paper are relevant to both theoretical research and implementation of real systems.     

A link layer adaptive pacing scheme for improving throughput of transport protocols in wireless mesh networks

In this paper, we study the performance of a static multihop wireless network, specifically that of the backhaul network of a two-tier Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) operating on IEEE 802.11 Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol. The performance of an IEEE 802.11 based backhaul network is greatly affected by the MAC contention and congestion in the network. If the sources pump data into the network than can be supported, loss rate increases due to MAC contention and congestion in the network. This also leads to the problem of unfairness among flows. In this paper, we propose a Link Layer Adaptive Pacing (LLAP) scheme that adaptively controls the offered load into the network. This improves the performance of higher layer protocols without any modifications to them. Our LLAP scheme estimates the four hop transmission delay in the network path without incurring any additional overhead (Control packets) and accordingly paces the packet transmissions to reduce MAC contentions in the network. We implement the LLAP scheme in ns-2.29 network simulator and extensively study its performance for both User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) traffic in different network scenarios. In all the cases, our scheme shows a significant improvement in the performance of both UDP and TCP traffic.     

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.     

一种无线Ad hoc网络MAC协议优化算法

通过对IEEE 802.11DCF中最优最小竞争窗口的分析,推导出最小竞争窗口的自适应调整公式,并给出一种估计网络竞争站点数目的算法,即S-DCF。将以上两点改进应用于无线Ad hoc网络MAC协议。仿真结果表明,这种自适应优化算法对无线Ad hoc网络有足够的精度和有效性,在系统饱和情况下,优化之后的系统吞吐量、系统时延和系统丢比特率均有明显改善。