The impact of a realistic packet traffic model on the performance of surveillance wireless sensor networks

It is quite common to see that classical periodic or Poisson packet traffic models are used for evaluating the performance of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). However, these models may not be appropriate for modeling the data traffic resulting from a particular application. Furthermore, they may be overestimating the performance of a WSN. In this paper, we show the significance of using a realistic and application-specific packet traffic model by comparing the performance of a well-known WSN protocol under the Surveillance WSN packet traffic model (SPTM), as well as under periodic and binomial traffic models. A packet traffic framework specific to surveillance applications is proposed which is then used for deriving SPTM analytically. In order to be adaptable and flexible, SPTM incorporates a probabilistic and parametric sensor detection model. Simulation results show that to employ an application-specific packet traffic model has significant impact on the performance evaluation of the WSN and ordinary traffic models may overestimate the capacity of the WSN.     

Service level agreements (SLAs) parameter negotiation between heterogeneous 4G wireless network operators

We are currently witnessing a growing interest of network operators to migrate their existing 2G/3G networks to 4G technologies such as long-term evolution (LTE) to enhance the user experience and service opportunities in terms of providing multi-megabit bandwidth, more efficient use of radio networks, latency reduction, and improved mobility. Along with this, there is a strong deployment of packet data networks such as those based on IEEE 802.11 and 802.16 standards. Mobile devices are having increased capabilities to access many of these wireless networks types at the same time. Reinforcing quality of service (QoS) in 4G wireless networks will be a major challenge because of varying bit rates, channel characteristics, bandwidth allocation and global roaming support among heterogeneous wireless networks. As a mobile user moves across access networks, to the issue of mapping resource reservations between different networks to maintain QoS behavior becomes crucial. To support global roaming and interoperability across heterogeneous wireless networks, it is important for wireless network operators to negotiate service level agreement (SLA) contracts relevant to the QoS requirements. Wireless IP traffic modeling (in terms of providing assured QoS) is still immature because the majority of the existing work is merely based on the characterization of wireless IP traffic without investigating the behavior of queueing systems for such traffic. To overcome such limitations, we investigate SLA parameter negotiation among heterogeneous wireless network operators by focusing on traffic engineering and QoS together for 4G wireless networks. We present a novel mechanism that achieves service continuity through SLA parameter negotiation by using a translation matrix, which maps QoS parameters between different access networks. The SLA matrix composition is modeled analytically based on the G/M/1 queueing system. We evaluate the model using two different scheduling schemes and we derive closed form expressions for different QoS parameters for performance metrics such as packet delay and packet loss rate. We also develop a discrete event simulator and conduct a series of simulation experiments in order to understand the QoS behavior of corresponding traffic classes.     

Above packet level admission control and bandwidth allocation for IEEE 802.16 wireless MAN

IEEE 802.16 wireless Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) is expected to revolutionize the broadband wireless access technology. Efficient resource management is essential in providing scalability in such large IEEE 802.16-based wireless network and Quality of Service (QoS) for multimedia applications (VoIP, MPEG, FTP, WWW) is usually achieved by appropriate classification of scheduling services and grant/request mechanism. In this paper, we firstly discuss the QoS issue in IEEE 802.16 wireless MANs and propose a dynamic admission control scheme for scheduling services defined in the 802.16 specification. The proposed scheme provides the highest priority for Unsolicited Grant Service (UGS) connections and maximizes the bandwidth utilization by employing bandwidth borrowing and degradation. We develop an approximate analytical model to evaluate the system performance by assuming that the traffic processes of all scheduling services are Poisson processes. In fact, the self-similarity of non-voice traffic makes its traffic process far from Poisson process and should be modeled by Poisson Pareto Burst Process (PPBP). Therefore, in the later part of the paper, we analyze upper bound blocking probabilities of all scheduling services above the packet level using PPBP model for fractal traffic and Gaussian model for aggregated traffic in large wireless network as well as using the Chernoff bound method. Based on the analytical results, we give another admission control and bandwidth allocation mechanism above the packet level so as to minimize the blocking probability of each type of service in IEEE 802.16 wireless MAN. Analytical and simulation results are obtained and compared to demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed schemes and validate our analytical models.     

An improved UDP protocol for video transmission overInternet-to-wireless networks

Packet video will become a significant portion of emerging and future wireless/Internet traffic. However, network congestion and wireless channel error yields tremendous packet loss and degraded video quality. In this paper, we propose a new complete user datagram protocol (CUDP), which utilizes channel error information obtained from the physical and link layers to assist error recovery at the packet level. We propose several maximal distance separable (MDS) code-based packet level error control coding schemes and derive analytical formulas to estimate the equivalent video frame loss for different versions of user datagram protocol (UDP). We validate the proposed packet coding and CUDP protocol using MPEG-coded video under various Internet packet loss and wireless channel profiles. Theoretic and simulation results show that the video quality can be substantially improved by utilizing the frame error information at UDP and application layer     

基于分形理论的无线链路性能分析

根据无线网络的实际测试结果，使用R／S分析法首次发现了802．11无线局域网的业务量特性具有长相关性(自相似性)，并发现两台无线设备进行点对点文件传输时的网络特性同样呈现出显著的长程相关性，作为建立基于分形理论的无线链路特性的数学模型的初步尝试，给出并验证了丢包率PLR与Hurst系数、缓存区容量大小和该无线链路服务率之间的一个近似的计算公式。     

An expert system for real-time traffic management in wireless local area networks

The paper explores delay-based congestion and flow control and the offloading of real-time traffic from wireless local area networks (WLANs) to mobile cellular networks (MCNs) in multihomed devices. The control system developed is based on an embedded hierarchical expert system. It adjusts transceivers’ traffic flow(s) for prevailing network conditions to achieve application-dependent delay and throughput limits. In wireless networks, delay and throughput depend on the packet size, packet transmission interval, and node connection density. Therefore, the controller on the destination node monitors average one-way delay and the change of one-way delay of the incoming traffic. On this basis, it adjusts the packet size and transmission interval of the source node by transmitting a control command to the source. If the prevailing level of traffic in the network exceeds its capacity despite of the control actions taken, devices prepare for developed asynchronous offloading of traffic to another access network.The control model was validated via simulation of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) traffic in the OMNeT++ network simulator. The results demonstrate that the expert system developed is able to regulate packet sizes to match the prevailing application-dependent optimum and transfer traffic to another network if the network exceed its capacity no matter the control actions taken. Although this work is motivated mainly by issues of congestion and flow control of WLAN systems and the simulations and results were prepared for the IEEE 802.11b system, the approach and techniques are not limited to these systems, but they are applicable for other packet switched access networks (PSANs), too.     

Delay analysis of downlink IP traffic on UMTS mobile networks

Since wireless networks which can carry high bit rates have become ubiquitous, mobile computing is no longer just spoken about. Mobile computing always implies access through a wireless network to an IP network such as the Internet. In order to understand the performance of such links, we propose an analytic model for the down link delay of IP traffic between the Mobile Gateway Server and the End User in a UMTS mobile network. Traffic arriving at the Gateway Server is considered to be bursty in nature and we use a Batch Markovian Arrival Process (BMAP) to model this arrival process. We model the wireless link itself as a modified multi-state Gilbert–Elliot Markov model which takes into account the number of interfering users and whether the channel experiences Ricean fading or not for what we consider a typical indoor, IP-centric environment. We also account in both the analytical model and the simulation for the Forward Error Correction provided by Turbo coding in UMTS to establish realistic packet retransmission rates. Finally we calibrate and verify the correctness of the model with a discrete event simulator.     

A survey of inter-flow network coding in wireless mesh networks with unicast traffic

Wireless network performance is much restricted by the unreliability of the wireless channel and the competition among different flows for the shared network resources such as the bandwidth. Network coding is a technique that exploits the broadcast of the wireless channel and can effectively address these two restrictions to improve network performance. For example, with network coding, an intermediate node of multiple flows can encode packets from these flows into one mixed packet and serve these flows using only one transmission instead of multiple transmissions in the traditional way, thus mitigating the competition among flows. Inter-flow network coding (XNC), as a form of network coding, considers encoding packets from different flows, and it can benefit wireless mesh networks (WMNs) with either reliable or lossy links. In this paper, we present a survey on XNC in WMNs for unicast traffic, with various design factors related to XNC being covered. Specifically, our survey considers two types of WMNs, one with reliable links and the other with lossy links, and we study how XNC can be effectively utilized in both two types of WMNs. In addition to the benefits of XNC, we also present in this survey some drawbacks of applying XNC in WMNs. With this paper, we believe that readers will have a more thorough understanding of XNC on how it effectively mitigates the resource competition among flows and the channel unreliability problem in WMNs.     

Numerical analysis of the power saving with a bursty traffic model in LTE-Advanced networks

We analyze the power saving operation called Discontinuous Reception (DRX) with a novel bursty packet arrival model in 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE)-Advanced networks. Typical analytical studies on the power saving operations in wireless networks have been carried out under the assumption that an expectation of exponentially distributed packet arrival intervals stays unchanged. However, practical packet arrival rate may change depending on time or typical Internet services may incur bursty packet arrivals. In either case, we need to evaluate the performance of the DRX operation. For this purpose, we develop a more realistic traffic arrival model considering packets may arrive in a bursty manner under the DRX operation. We, then, analyze the performance of the DRX operation in terms of power saving efficiency and average queuing delay, respectively. The analytical results are validated via comparisons with simulation results.     

Upper-level scheduling supporting multimedia traffic in cellular data networks

Wireless data networks such as cdma2000 1x EV-DO and UMTS HSDPA use downlink scheduling that exploits channel fading to increase the system throughput. As future wireless networks will eventually support multimedia and data traffic together, we need a proper criterion for scheduling that can count various service requirements such as delay and packet loss. Although some previous approaches proposed opportunistic schedulers at the lower layer, it has not been investigated well whether they are able to meet explicit QoS defined at the upper layer. Hence, in this paper, we develop a hierarchical scheduling model that considers QoS provisioning and the time-varying channel feature separately. We focus on the upper-level QoS scheduling that supports various traffic classes in a unified manner. Supposing that a user gets some satisfaction or utility when served, we introduce a novel concept of opportunity cost, which is defined as the maximum utility loss among users incurred by serving a particular user at the current turn. We obtain each user’s net profit by subtracting the opportunity cost from its expected utility, and then select a user with the maximum profit for service. Simulation results reveal that our scheme supports various QoS classes well that are represented by delay and packet loss under various traffic loadings.     

Performance evaluation of an open distributed platform for realistic traffic generation

Network researchers have dedicated a notable part of their efforts to the area of modeling traffic and to the implementation of efficient traffic generators. We feel that there is a strong demand for traffic generators capable to reproduce realistic traffic patterns according to theoretical models and at the same time with high performance. This work presents an open distributed platform for traffic generation that we called distributed internet traffic generator (D-ITG), capable of producing traffic (network, transport and application layer) at packet level and of accurately replicating appropriate stochastic processes for both inter departure time (IDT) and packet size (PS) random variables. We implemented two different versions of our distributed generator. In the first one, a log server is in charge of recording the information transmitted by senders and receivers and these communications are based either on TCP or UDP. In the other one, senders and receivers make use of the MPI library. In this work a complete performance comparison among the centralized version and the two distributed versions of D-ITG is presented.     

无线传感器网络权衡生存时间与数据分组跳数的分流路由算法*

无线传感器网络的节点大多采用电池供电.因而节能对无线传感器网络就显得至关重要.该文提出一种能耗感知的优化网络生存时间的路由算法,称之为分流路由算法(DTRA,Diffluent Traffic Routing Algorithm).DTRA算法采用一个优化模型以优化每个节点发出的数据比例,从而达到权衡网络生存时间和数据分组跳数.此外,采用一个简单的遗传算法求解该优化问题.仿真结果表明:DTRA算法能显著地提高网络的生存时间,同时将数据分组平均跳数保持在一个较低的水平;在网络生存时间上,DTRA算法比一些已有的知名算法更优.     

Dynamic bandwidth provisioning using ARIMA-based traffic forecasting for Mobile WiMAX

With fast proliferation of QoS-enabled wireless packet networks, need for effective QoS control is increasing. In this paper, we focus on QoS provisioning in Mobile WiMAX access service network (ASN). We investigate a dynamic bandwidth provisioning method that can help to increase resource utilization. Our approach consists of two stages: traffic forecasting, followed by bandwidth provisioning. For the first stage, we use auto-regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model to forecast traffic based on online measurement. For the second stage, we use a bandwidth provisioning scheme that allocates bandwidths depending on the traffic forecasting. We modeled our problem as a Fractional Knapsack Problem for which we used a greedy algorithm in order to find an approximate solution. Through simulation studies with real-world data sets, we found that our approach could increase the bandwidth for the real-time traffic class and guarantee adequate service quality for the nonreal-time traffic class as well, while maximizing resource utilization.     

基于分组到达率的802.11 DCF性能分析

针对WLAN(wireless local area network)基础结构模式中的IEEE 802.11 DCF(distributed coordination function)机制,提出了一种基于分组到达率的性能分析模型.模型不仅考虑了终端数量、传输负载、二进制指数回退机制等因素,而且分析了MAC(mediunl access control)层有限队列对系统性能的影响.在每个终端被模型化为M/M/1/K队列的基础上,进一步利用虚拟时隙在时间上离散化终端MAC层队列状态,并采用离散时间的三维马尔可夫链对系统性能建模.基于该模型得到了归一化吞吐量、分组时延和丢包率.仿真分析结果表明,该模型能够有效地预测变化的分组到达率情形下DCF机制的性能.     

Performance analysis of adaptive buffer management mechanism using autoregressive based MPEG-4 encoded video traffic model

The burstiness of video traffic in future wired and wireless networks makes dynamic management of network resources more critical. This helps to meet stringent delay and loss requirements of video traffic and improves its Quality of Service (QoS). Since buffer management in queueing system plays an important role towards effective control of QoS for various types of applications, we have focused on its dynamic management. In this paper, we have proposed ADPBS scheme for priority queueing system. The performance of this scheme is analyzed with MPEG-4 encoded video sequence as input to the ADPBS queue. The simulation is carried out in MATLAB for various combinations of threshold control parameters, different traffic load and input traffic mix variations. The results of simulations indicate that dynamically controlled threshold in ADPBS contributes to significant reduction of packet loss of different priority classes as compared with static partial buffer sharing queue and first in first out queue based on threshold control parameters and the traffic type.     

Packet transmission policies for battery operated wireless sensor networks

With the concept of “Cognitive Sense of China” and “Smart Planet” proposed, wireless sensor networking is considered to be one of the most important technologies of the new century. In wireless sensor networks, how to extend battery lifetime is a core problem. In this paper, we address the problem of designing battery-friendly packet transmission policies for wireless sensor networks. Our objective is to maximize the lifetime of batteries for wireless sensor nodes subject to certain delay constraints. We present three packet transmission schemes and evaluate them with respect to battery performance. The first scheme, based on combining multiple packets, utilizes battery charge recovery effect, which allows some charge to be recovered during long idle periods. The second scheme, based on a modified version of lazy packet scheduling, draws smoother and lower current and is battery efficient. The final scheme, based on a combination of the two previous schemes has superior battery performance at the expense of larger average packet delay. All three schemes are simulated for a wireless network framework with internet traffic, and the results were validated.     

Ant-based routing for wireless multimedia sensor networks using multiple QoS metrics

In wireless sensor networks, most routing protocols consider energy savings as the main objective and assume data traffic with unconstrained delivery requirements to be a given. However, the introduction of video and imaging sensors unveils additional challenges. The transmission of video and imaging data requires both energy efficiency and QoS assurance (end-to-end delay and packet loss requirements), in order to ensure the efficient use of sensor resources as well as the integrity of the information collected. This paper presents a QoS routing model for Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks (WMSN). Moreover, based on the traditional ant-based algorithm, an ant-based multi-QoS routing metric (AntSensNet) is proposed. The AntSensNet protocol builds a hierarchical structure on the network before choosing suitable paths to meet various QoS requirements from different kinds of traffic, thus maximizing network utilization, while improving its performance. In addition, AntSensNet is able to use a efficient multi-path video packet scheduling in order to get minimum video distortion transmission. Finally, extensive simulations are conducted to assess the effectiveness of this novel solution and a detailed discussion regarding the effects of different system parameters is provided. Compared to typical routing algorithms in sensor networks and the traditional ant-based algorithm, this new algorithm has better convergence and provides significantly better QoS for multiple types of services in wireless multimedia sensor networks.     

基于组播通信的交通通信网络研究

研究交通通信网络,提高网络的吞吐量和数据传输效率。针对传统的单播组网中通信发送者需要多次复制相同的数据包以满足多个接受者同时提出的数据请求,随着数据请求的增多使得发送者的通信负担加重,造成网络拥塞、吞吐量不高的问题。为了解决上述难题,提出基于组播通信的交通通信网络的组网方法。采用Mesh结构构建交通通信网络的组播模型,使得网络节点之间建立有线或无线的连接,然后利用网络编码算法实现网络间的通信,使得源点只需发送一次就可向多个终点成功传输相同的数据。实验表明,组网方法能够有效解决数据请求过多时网络吞吐量不高的问题,同时提高了数据传输的效率,取得了满意的结果。     

Packet transmission policies for battery operated wireless sensor networks

With the concept of “Cognitive Sense of China” and “Smart Planet” proposed, wireless sensor networking is considered to be one of the most important technologies of the new century. In wireless sensor networks, how to extend battery lifetime is a core problem. In this paper, we address the problem of designing battery-friendly packet transmission policies for wireless sensor networks. Our objective is to maximize the lifetime of batteries for wireless sensor nodes subject to certain delay constraints. We present three packet transmission schemes and evaluate them with respect to battery performance. The first scheme, based on combining multiple packets, utilizes battery charge recovery effect, which allows some charge to be recovered during long idle periods. The second scheme, based on a modified version of lazy packet scheduling, draws smoother and lower current and is battery efficient. The final scheme, based on a combination of the two previous schemes has superior battery performance at the expense of larger average packet delay. All three schemes are simulated for a wireless network framework with internet traffic, and the results were validated.     

无线网络中基于流媒体传输的自适应TFRC机制

在无线网络高误码率的环境下, 经典TFRC机制会将无线误码丢包误认为拥塞丢包, 导致吞吐量过度降低. 针对无线网络实时流媒体业务的传输控制问题, 提出了一种改进型动态自适应TFRC机制(Adaptive-TFRC). 它在接收端利用丢包区分参数来真实反映网络的状态(即拥塞或者误码), 然后反馈至发送端, 同时对经典TFRC机制的吞吐量模型公式进行改进, 最终能够根据实时网络条件动态自适应地调节传输速率. 仿真结果表明, Adaptive-TFRC机制能够有效地提高网络吞吐量, 降低实时业务流的延时抖动, 同时能够进一步改善TCP业务的友好性传输, 从而保证无线网络实时流媒体的服务质量.