Link scheduling with power control for throughput enhancement in multihop wireless networks

Joint scheduling and power control schemes have previously been proposed to reduce power dissipation in wireless ad hoc networks. However, instead of power consumption, throughput is a more important performance concern for some emerging multihop wireless networks, such as wireless mesh networks. This paper examines joint link scheduling and power control with the objective of throughput improvement. The MAximum THroughput link Scheduling with Power Control (MATH-SPC) problem is first formulated and then a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) formulation is presented to provide optimal solutions. However, simply maximizing the throughput may lead to a severe bias on bandwidth allocation among links. To achieve a good tradeoff between throughput and fairness, a new parameter called the demand satisfaction factor (DSF) to characterize the fairness of bandwidth allocation and formulate the MAximum Throughput fAir link Scheduling with Power Control (MATA-SPC) problem is defined. An MILP formulation and an effective polynomial-time heuristic algorithm, namely, the serial linear programming rounding (SLPR) heuristic, to solve the MATA-SPC problem are also presented. Numerical results show that bandwidth can be fairly allocated among all links/flows by solving the MILP formulation or by using the heuristic algorithm at the cost of a minor reduction of network throughput. In addition, extensions to end-to-end throughput and fairness and multiradio wireless multihop networks are discussed.     

Nature-inspired optimization of Moving Access Point-based radio networks

Wireless communication systems have penetrated into almost all parts of human life. They have become essential and pervasive and do affect both personal and professional aspects of our lives. While most types of wireless networks, such as cellular mobile communication networks, have been exhaustively studied and optimized, in order to handle various situations, there are also contexts which require efficient handling, e.g., moving hotspots, areas that have lost their infrastructure, and areas with hard morphology. The motivation for this work is the efficient handling of these important contexts by the use of Moving Access Points (MAPs). MAPs are capable of autonomously moving and establishing a radio network in short time, with limited centralized management. The radio network provides wireless access to users, is based on ad hoc connectivity (self-adapting mesh network concept), and has some elements acting as gateways to a wide-area infrastructure. The main purpose of this paper is to find the optimal position of the MAPs, i.e., the ones which require minimum movement and telecommunication cost. In order to achieve this goal, an innovative algorithm that combines the well-known simulated annealing algorithm with the characteristic of pheromone of the ant colony optimization is proposed. This is done in order to exploit ant colony optimization concepts in the related problem of the optimization of the MAP-based radio network design. The operation of the algorithm is validated by being applied to three most indicative scenarios, in which it is compared to the pure simulated annealing and a brute-force method, respectively. Our scheme exhibits a 5% improved performance in terms of solution quality in medium and large size problems, a 9% improved speed for the estimation of the suboptimal solution and 15% quicker adaptation to new context, without impacting the computational complexity.     

Joint Channel Assignment and Routing for Throughput Optimization in Multiradio Wireless Mesh Networks

Multihop infrastructure wireless mesh networks offer increased reliability, coverage, and reduced equipment costs over their single-hop counterpart, wireless local area networks. Equipping wireless routers with multiple radios further improves the capacity by transmitting over multiple radios simultaneously using orthogonal channels. Efficient channel assignment and routing is essential for throughput optimization of mesh clients. Efficient channel assignment schemes can greatly relieve the interference effect of close-by transmissions; effective routing schemes can alleviate potential congestion on any gateways to the Internet, thereby improving per-client throughput. Unlike previous heuristic approaches, we mathematically formulate the joint channel assignment and routing problem, taking into account the interference constraints, the number of channels in the network, and the number of radios available at each mesh router. We then use this formulation to develop a solution for our problem that optimizes the overall network throughput subject to fairness constraints on allocation of scarce wireless capacity among mobile clients. We show that the performance of our algorithms is within a constant factor of that of any optimal algorithm for the joint channel assignment and routing problem. Our evaluation demonstrates that our algorithm can effectively exploit the increased number of channels and radios, and it performs much better than the theoretical worst case bounds     

On Efficient Traffic Distribution for Disaster Area Communication Using Wireless Mesh Networks

In recent time, a great deal of research effort has been directed toward promptly facilitating post-disaster communication by using wireless mesh networks (WMNs). WMN technology has been considered to be effectively exploited for this purpose as it provides multi-hop communication through an access network comprising wireless mesh routers, which are connected to the Internet through gateways (GWs). One of the critical challenges in using WMNs for establishing disaster-recovery networks is the issue of distributing traffic among the users in a balanced manner in order to avoid congestion at the GWs. To overcome this issue, we envision a disaster zone WMN comprising a network management center. First, we thoroughly investigate the problem of traffic load balancing amongst the GWs in our considered disaster zone WMN. Then, we develop traffic load distribution techniques from two perspectives. Our proposal from the first perspective hinges upon a balanced distribution of the bandwidth to be allocated per user. On the other hand, our second perspective considers the dynamic (i.e., varying) bandwidth demands from the disaster zone users that requires a more practical and refined distribution of the available bandwidth by following an intelligent forecasting method. The effectiveness of our proposals is evaluated through computer-based simulations.     

An efficient traffic control system using dynamic thresholding techniques in wireless mesh networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) depend on a resilient and high‐performance infrastructure to provide users pervasive Internet access. In WMNs, all Internet traffic will be forwarded to the Internet gateways. Hence, these gateways are generally bottleneck nodes. This work proposes a traffic control technique to reduce the bottleneck problem and increase the utilization of network resources. Our approach provides a traffic control strategy that exploits dynamic techniques to adjust the threshold according to the traffic load of each gateway. The base threshold is defined in order to effectively control the traffic. When the current load exceeds the threshold of a gateway, the traffic redirection strategy is implemented by switching border nodes. The service regions can be adjusted for each gateway based on the traffic load. Furthermore, the proposed dynamic thresholding approaches can distribute the workloads of gateways and maintain the thresholds of any two gateways within a level range, making an in‐band balance of load. Thus, our proposed scheme can handle the unnecessary traffic redirection and reduce the traffic control overhead for various distributions of traffic. Experimental results demonstrate that our scheme outperforms other schemes in terms of packet delivery ratio and efficiency, especially in bursty traffic environments. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reinforcement learning based routing in wireless mesh networks

This paper addresses the problem of efficient routing in backbone wireless mesh networks (WMNs) where each mesh router is equipped with multiple radio interfaces and a subset of nodes serve as gateways to the Internet. Most routing schemes have been designed to reduce routing costs by optimizing one metric, e.g., hop count and interference ratio. However, when considering these metrics together, the complexity of the routing problem increases drastically. Thus, an efficient and adaptive routing scheme that takes into account several metrics simultaneously and considers traffic congestion around the gateways is needed. In this paper, we propose an adaptive scheme for routing traffic in WMNs, called Reinforcement Learning-based Distributed Routing (RLBDR), that (1) considers the critical areas around the gateways where mesh routers are much more likely to become congested and (2) adaptively learns an optimal routing policy taking into account multiple metrics, such as loss ratio, interference ratio, load at the gateways and end-to end delay. Simulation results show that RLBDR can significantly improve the overall network performance compared to schemes using either Metric of Interference and Channel switching, Best Path to Best Gateway, Expected Transmission count, nearest gateway (i.e., shortest path to gateway) or load at gateways as a metric for path selection.     

Gateway Placement for Throughput Optimization in Wireless Mesh Networks

In this paper, we address the problem of gateway placement for throughput optimization in multi-hop wireless mesh networks. Assume that each mesh node in the mesh network has a traffic demand. Given the number of gateways to be deployed (denoted by k) and the interference model in the network, we study where to place exactly k gateways in the mesh network such that the total throughput is maximized while it also ensures a certain fairness among all mesh nodes. We propose a novel grid-based gateway deployment method using a cross-layer throughput optimization, and prove that the achieved throughput by our method is a constant times of the optimal. Simulation results demonstrate that our method can effectively exploit the available resources and perform much better than random and fixed deployment methods. In addition, the proposed method can also be extended to work with multi-channel and multi-radio mesh networks under different interference models.     

VoIP traffic in wireless mesh networks: a MOS‐based routing scheme

Support of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services in wireless mesh networks requires implementation of efficient policies to support low‐delay data delivery. Multipath routing is typically supported in wireless mesh networks at the network level to provide high fault tolerance and load balancing because links in the proximity of the wireless mesh gateways can be very stressed and overloaded, thus causing scarce performance. As a consequence of using multipath solutions, lower delay and higher throughput can be supported also when a given path is broken because of mobility or bad channel conditions, and alternative routes are available. This can be a relevant improvement especially when assuming that real‐time traffic, such as VoIP, travels into the network. In this paper, we address the problem of Quality of Service (QoS) support in wireless mesh networks and propose a multipath routing strategy that exploits the Mean Opinion Score (MOS) metric to select the most suitable paths for supporting VoIP applications and performing adaptive load balancing among the available paths to equalize network traffic. Performance results assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach when compared with other existing methodologies. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Minimum-energy multicast in wireless ad hoc networks with adaptive antennas: MILP formulations and heuristic algorithms

In this paper, we consider wireless ad hoc networks that use adaptive antennas and have limited energy resources. To explore the advantages of power saving offered by the use of adaptive antennas, we consider the case of source initiated multicast traffic. We present a constraint formulation for the MEM (Minimum-Energy Multicast) problem in terms of MILP (Mixed Integer Linear Programming) for wireless ad hoc networks. An optimal solution to the MEM problem using our MILP model can always be obtained in a timely manner for moderately sized networks. In addition to the theoretical effort, we also present two polynomial-time heuristic algorithms called RB-MIDP and D-MIDP to handle larger networks for which the MILP model may not be computationally efficient. The experimental results show that our algorithms compare well with other proposals discussed in this paper.     

A Lagrangian-Relaxation Based Network Profit Optimization For Mesh SONET-Over-WDM Networks

In Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) networks, the huge capacity of wavelength channels is generally much larger than the bandwidth requirement of individual traffic streams from network users. Traffic grooming techniques aggregate low-bandwidth traffic streams onto high-bandwidth wavelength channels. In this paper, we study the optimization problem of grooming the static traffic in mesh Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) over WDM networks. The problem is formulated as a constrained integer linear programming problem and an innovative optimization objective is developed as network profit optimization. The routing cost in the SONET and WDM layers as well as the revenue generated by accepting SONET traffic demands are modelled. Through the optimization process, SONET traffic demands will be selectively accepted based on the profit (i.e., the excess of revenue over network cost) they generate. Consiering the complexity of the network optimization problem, a decomposition approach using Lagrangian relaxation is proposed. The overall relaxed dual problem is decomposed into routing and wavelength assignment and SONET traffic routing sub-problems. The subgradient approach is used to optimize the derived dual function by updating the Lagrange multipliers. To generate a feasible network routing scheme, a heuristic algorithm is proposed based on the dual solution. A systematic approach to obtain theoretical performance bounds is presented for an arbitrary topology mesh network. This is the first time that such theoretical performance bounds are obtained for SONET traffic grooming in mesh topology networks. The optimization results of sample networks indicate that the roposed algorithm achieves good sub-optimal solutions. Finally, the influence of various network parameters is studied.     

Interference‐aware spectrum handover for cognitive radio networks

Cognitive radio (CR) is a promising technique for future wireless networks, which significantly improves spectrum utilization. In CR networks, when the primary users (PUs) appear, the secondary users (SUs) have to switch to other available channels to avoid the interference to PUs. However, in the multi‐SU scenario, it is still a challenging problem to make an optimal decision on spectrum handover because of the the accumulated interference constraint of PUs and SUs. In this paper, we propose an interference‐aware spectrum handover scheme that aims to maximize the CR network capacity and minimize the spectrum handover overhead by coordinating SUs’ handover decision optimally in the PU–SU coexisted CR networks. On the basis of the interference temperature model, the spectrum handover problem is formulated as a constrained optimization problem, which is in general a non‐deterministic polynomial‐time hard problem. To address the problem in a feasible way, we design a heuristic algorithm by using the technique of Branch and Bound. Finally, we combine our spectrum handover scheme with power control and give a convenient solution in a single‐SU scenario. Experimental results show that our algorithm can improve the network performance efficiently.Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

GI/Geom/1 queue based on communication model for mesh networks

In mesh networks architecture, it should be permitted to visit the mobile client points. Whereas in mesh networks environment, the main throughput flows usually communicate with the conventional wired network. The so‐called gateway nodes can link directly to traditional Ethernet, depending on these mesh nodes, and can obtain access to data sources that are related to the Ethernet. In wireless mesh networks (WMNs), the quantities of gateways are limited. The packet‐processing ability of settled wireless nodes is limited. Consequently, throughput loads of mesh nodes highly affect the network performance. In this paper, we propose a queuing system that relied on traffic model for WMNs. On the basis of the intelligent adaptivenes, the model considers the influences of interference. Using this intelligent model, service stations with boundless capacity are defined as between gateway and common nodes based on the largest hop count from the gateways, whereas the other nodes are modeled as service stations with certain capacity. Afterwards, we analyze the network throughput, mean packet loss ratio, and packet delay on each hop node with the adaptive model proposed. Simulations show that the intelligent and adaptive model presented is precise in modeling the features of traffic loads in WMNs. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Survivable lightpath provisioning in WDM mesh networks under shared path protection and signal quality constraints

This paper addresses the problem of survivable lightpath provisioning in wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) mesh networks, taking into consideration optical-layer protection and some realistic optical signal quality constraints. The investigated networks use sparsely placed optical-electrical-optical (O/E/O) modules for regeneration and wavelength conversion. Given a fixed network topology with a number of sparsely placed O/E/O modules and a set of connection requests, a pair of link-disjoint lightpaths is established for each connection. Due to physical impairments and wavelength continuity, both the working and protection lightpaths need to be regenerated at some intermediate nodes to overcome signal quality degradation and wavelength contention. In the present paper, resource-efficient provisioning solutions are achieved with the objective of maximizing resource sharing. The authors propose a resource-sharing scheme that supports three kinds of resource-sharing scenarios, including a conventional wavelength-link sharing scenario, which shares wavelength links between protection lightpaths, and two new scenarios, which share O/E/O modules between protection lightpaths and between working and protection lightpaths. An integer linear programming (ILP)-based solution approach is used to find optimal solutions. The authors also propose a local optimization heuristic approach and a tabu search heuristic approach to solve this problem for real-world, large mesh networks. Numerical results show that our solution approaches work well under a variety of network settings and achieves a high level of resource-sharing rates (over 60% for O/E/O modules and over 30% for wavelength links), which translate into great savings in network costs.     

Practical energy‐aware cell association for small cell deployment

In this work, we consider a heterogeneous network consisting of macro and pico base stations. Our goal is to associate users to one of the base stations,while minimizing the energy consumption of the network. Moreover, the algorithm should consider constraints of a real system and thus, only include the necessary complexity that helps reducing the energy consumption. Therefore, we first formulate the energy minimization problem in three different manners, each one including a different level of modeling details. The solution of each problem is analyzed to identify the important factors to consider when designing an energy‐optimized cell association algorithm. Based on this analysis, we then develop a practical energy‐aware cell association heuristic. Finally, the developed algorithm is evaluated using complex system simulations. Results show that significant energy savings are achievable by the developed algorithm compared with the conventional cell association in cellular networks. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Energy‐aware traffic allocation to optical lightpaths in multilayer core networks

The amount of traffic that is generated by users and high‐demanding services is expected to rise dramatically in the forthcoming years. This will unavoidably deteriorate the performance and increase the consumed energy of core networks, thus constraining the growth of Internet. To this effect, multilayer traffic engineering schemes in IP/multiprotocol label switching over dense wavelength division multiplexing networks have been proposed for achieving improved performance and increased energy savings by flexibly allocating traffic to optical lightpaths. In particular, the consumed energy in a router can be minimized if the lightpaths are established so as to traverse a router without electronic processing and conversion of their signal between optical and electrical layer. Accordingly, this paper aims at providing an energy‐aware solution to the problem of traffic allocation to optical lightpaths in multilayer core networks. The problem is first formulated and then a solution based on a heuristic algorithm, called energy‐aware traffic allocation to optical lightpaths (ETAL) is proposed. The efficiency and worthiness of ETAL is validated through numerous scenarios and simulations. The derived results indicate that the proposed algorithm is an efficient traffic engineering solution that exhibits better performance in terms of consumed energy (up to 44%), when compared to other similar traffic allocation schemes. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multi-gateway association in wireless mesh networks

Most traditional models of wireless mesh networks involve a mobile device connecting to the backbone through one of the available gateways in a wireless mesh network. In this paper, we present an alternate model, in which mobile devices are allowed to connect through more than one of the available gateways. We call the model multi-gateway association (MGA). We present arguments for why such a model can result in better capacity, fairness, diversity and security when compared to the default single-association model. We also identify the primary challenges that need to be addressed when using multiple-gateway associations, and propose solutions to handle these challenges. Using simulations, we show that throughput benefits ranging from 10% to 125% can be obtained by the proposed model as compared to a default single association model with just two gateways and more importantly, benefits linear in the number of gateways are obtainable. Through simulations and analysis, we establish why only intelligent multi-gateway association and neither single or simple multi-gateway association strategies can yield significant benefits.     

Fixed channel assignment algorithm for multi‐radio multi‐channel MESH networks

Recently, multi‐radio mesh technology in wireless networks has been under extensive research. This is because of its potential of overcoming the inherent wireless multi‐hop throughput, scalability and latency problems caused by the half‐duplex nature of the IEEE 802.11. The concept of deploying multiple radios in wireless network access points (APs) has shown a promising way to enhance the channel selection and the route formation while the MESH topology allows more fine‐grained interference management and topology control. Within this realm, given a set of end‐to‐end objectives, there are multiple issues that need to be identified when we consider the optimization problem for fixed multi‐channel multi‐hop wireless networks with multiple radios. This paper addresses the static channel assignment problem for multichannel multi‐radio static wireless mesh networks. We first discuss its similarities and differences with the channel assignment problem in cellular networks (WMN). Next, we present four metrics based on which mesh channel assignments can be obtained. Three of these metrics attempt to maximize simultaneous transmissions in a mesh network, either directly or indirectly. The fourth metric quantifies the ‘diversity’ of a particular assignment and can be used as a secondary criterion to the other three metrics. Related optimization models have also been developed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improving bandwidth efficiency in fault‐tolerant opaque IP over optical mesh networks

Adequately providing fault tolerance while using network capacity efficiently is a major topic of research in optical networks. In order to improve the network utilization, grooming of low‐rate connections in optical networks has been usually performed at the edge of the network. However, in all‐optical networks once a channel is assigned, its entire capacity is dedicated to the users independently of its grooming capabilities. As current users don't usually require such big capacities, bandwidth inefficiencies still occur. In this paper we address this issue introducing unlimited grooming per link (UGPL), a new restoration mechanism for opaque mesh optical networks that grooms connections on a per‐link basis. Simulation results show that UGPL provides the best bandwidth efficiency and the best blocking probability compared to traditional 1 + 1 protection and 1 : N end‐to‐end sharing schemes. Furthermore, we show that the 1 : N end‐to‐end restoration scheme provides no benefits over the simpler and faster 1 + 1 protection scheme. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gateway Placement Optimization in Wireless Mesh Networks With QoS Constraints

In a wireless mesh network (WMN), the traffic is aggregated and forwarded towards the gateways. Strategically placing and connecting the gateways to the wired backbone is critical to the management and efficient operation of a WMN. In this paper, we address the problem of gateways placement, consisting in placing a minimum number of gateways such that quality-of-service (QoS) requirements are satisfied. We propose a polynomial time near-optimal algorithm which recursively computes minimum weighted Dominating Sets (DS), while consistently preserving QoS requirements across iterations. We evaluate the performance of our algorithm using both analysis and simulation, and show that it outperforms other alternative schemes by comparing the number of gateways placed in different scenarios     

Towards efficient dynamic surface gateway deployment for underwater network

In underwater acoustic sensor network, deploying multiple surface-level radio capable gateways is an efficient way to alleviate the burdens of high propagation delay and high error probability during transmission. However, the locations of gateways need to be carefully selected to maximize the benefit in a cost-effective way. In this paper, we present our formulation of the surface gateway deployment problem as an integer linear programming (ILP) and we solve the problem with heuristic approaches to provide a realtime solution for large scale deployment problems. By applying the proposed heuristic algorithms to a variety of deployment scenarios, we show that they are nearly optimal for practical cases, which opens the door for dynamic deployment. Therefore, we extend our solution to a dynamic case and propose a modified framework that integrates Aqua-sim, a NS2-based underwater wireless sensor network simulator. Our simulation result shows the benefits of dynamic gateway redeployment over static deployment.