Revealing the problems with 802.11 medium access control protocol in multi-hop wireless ad hoc networks

The IEEE 802.11 medium access control (MAC) protocol is a standard for wireless LANs, it is also widely used in almost all test beds and simulations for the research in wireless mobile multi-hop ad hoc networks. However, this protocol was not designed for multi-hop networks. Although it can support some ad hoc network architecture, it is not intended to support the wireless mobile ad hoc network, in which multi-hop connectivity is one of the most prominent features. In this paper, we focus on the following question: can IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol function well in multi-hop networks? By presenting several serious problems encountered in transmission control protocol (TCP) connections in an IEEE 802.11 based multi-hop network, we show that the current TCP protocol does not work well above the current 802.11 MAC layer. The relevant problems include the TCP instability problem found in this kind of network, the severe unfairness problem, and the incompatibility problem. We illustrate that all these problems are rooted in the MAC layer. Furthermore, by revealing the in-depth cause of these problems, we conclude that the current version of this wireless LAN protocol does not function well in multi-hop ad hoc networks. We thus doubt whether the current WaveLAN based system is workable as a mobile multi-hop ad hoc test bed. All the results shown in this paper are based on NS2 simulations, and are compatible with the results from the OPNET simulations.     

移动自组织网络服务质量控制机制综述

综述了移动Ad Hoc网络的QoS机制,将其划分为链路层、网络层、传输层、跨层优化和网络间QoS机制,并加以比较和分析。链路层QoS机制主要在于提供QoS控制的MAC协议。学者在网络层设计了各种服务质量感知路由,包括原有路由协议的QoS控制扩展和全新的支持QoS控制的路由协议。为了区分传输失败的原因以及降低资源竞争,传输层提供适合移动Ad Hoc网络的TCP协议。为了全面解决链路层触发、路由选择和负载平衡的问题,学者提出跨层构建QoS体系结构。网络间QoS机制主要在于提供移动Ad Hoc网络和固定结构网络之间的QoS保证。最后进行对比总结,指出了各种技术的特点和适用范围,并展望了该领域的未来发展方向。     

Design and evaluation of a novel MAC layer handoff protocol for IEEE 802.11 wireless networks

In recent years, the IEEE 802.11 wireless network family has become one of the most important set of standards in the wireless communications industry. IEEE 802.11 compliant devices are inexpensive and easier to configure and deploy than other wireless technologies. In an IEEE 802.11 wireless network, wireless terminals can move freely. As a result, when the wireless terminal moves away from its current access point, it must switch to another access point to maintain the active connection. This is known as the MAC layer handoff process. MAC layer handoff latency should be minimized to support real-time applications and to provide mobile devices with seamless roaming in IEEE 802.11 wireless networks. This paper proposes a novel MAC layer handoff protocol over IEEE 802.11 wireless networks by introducing advertisement messages sent from other mobile nodes and from which wireless terminals are able to receive the information of access points in their neighborhood. A mobile node can try to associate with access points based on the prediction before starting the probe process. The experimental results demonstrate that our solution can reduce MAC layer handoff latency to meet the requirements of real-time applications.     

无线自组织网络中的IEEE802．11 MAC协议的研究

IEEES02．11 DCF作为无线局域网的MAC层规范被广泛应用于无线自组织网络的仿真和测试中。通过研究发现即使在拓扑不变的条件下，使用表驱动路由协议DSDV，TCP流仍然存在不稳定和不公平现象，本文分析了问题产生的原因，提出了基于网络负载的解决问题方法。     

无线局域网中TCP公平性问题研究综述

在无线局域网络中,由于无线MAC层协议只能保证各无线节点的公平接入无线信道,如何确保传输层TCP流的公平性就变得十分重要.TCP闭环拥塞控制的贪婪性、MAC协议节点接入公平性和无线信道的异构性,导致TCP在无线局域网络出现多种不公平问题.对当前存在的几种TCP不公平问题及相应的解决方法进行了分析和比较,阐述了目前亟待解决的主要问题和今后的研究方向.     

移动Ad Hoc网络的跨层优化拥塞控制

基于网络协议层框架充分分析了TCP应用到Ad Hoc网络导致性能下降的原因,包括:物理层中易损耗的无线信道, MAC层中的过度竞争和不公平接入,网络层中节点移动引起的频繁路由失效,传输层中TCP采用的不合适机制,包括基于窗口的传输、基于数据包丢失的拥塞指示,拥塞窗口的慢启动和AIMD、对ACK自定时的依赖;提出了全新的适合Ad Hoc网络特性的跨层优化拥塞控制协议CCOC(cross-layer optimal congestion control).CCOC运用了跨层设计框架来改进MAC层的接入信道公平性、检测虚假链路失效、减少路由失效次数、加快路由切换后的重启动、运用SACK实现可靠传输和实施非线性优化论指导设计的自适应优化策略;描述了CCOC的协议体系结构;实施了详细的NS仿真实验,仿真结果表明,在几乎所有的仿真场景和移动环境下,CCOC比TCP和ATCP在许多重要性能指标,如吞吐量和公平性方面都有了明显的改进.     

移动Ad Hoc网络的跨层优化拥塞控制

基于网络协议层框架充分分析了TCP应用到Ad Hoc网络导致性能下降的原因,包括:物理层中易损耗的无线信道, MAC层中的过度竞争和不公平接入,网络层中节点移动引起的频繁路由失效,传输层中TCP采用的不合适机制,包括基于窗口的传输、基于数据包丢失的拥塞指示,拥塞窗口的慢启动和AIMD、对ACK自定时的依赖;提出了全新的适合Ad Hoc网络特性的跨层优化拥塞控制协议CCOC(cross-layer optimal congestion control).CCOC运用了跨层设计框架来改进MAC层的接入信道公平性、检测虚假链路失效、减少路由失效次数、加快路由切换后的重启动、运用SACK实现可靠传输和实施非线性优化论指导设计的自适应优化策略;描述了CCOC的协议体系结构;实施了详细的NS仿真实验,仿真结果表明,在几乎所有的仿真场景和移动环境下,CCOC比TCP和ATCP在许多重要性能指标,如吞吐量和公平性方面都有了明显的改进.     

Improving TCP performance over wired–wireless networks

Today there is a growing demand for Internet services over WLAN hotspots. Majority of the Internet services today are based on TCP. However, TCP is not well-suited for heterogeneous networks consisting of wired and wireless networks. Losses in wireless network, which are quite frequent, are often misinterpreted by the TCP sender as loss due to congestion, which leads to poor performance of TCP. Hence, it is important to shield the TCP sender from wireless error. In this paper, we propose an improved method for identifying cases of wireless losses and tackling the loss at the local link level through MAC layer retransmissions. We then evaluate the effect of MAC layer retransmissions on the performance of TCP both analytically and empirically. Our empirical results show that significant improvement in TCP performance is possible through MAC layer retransmission.     

无线移动网络中增强TCP性能的技术综述

TCP是因特网上的主要传输协议，在数据包丢失主要是由拥塞引起的传统网络上，TCP可以充分发挥其性能，但是在无线移动网络中，TCP将无线信道比特差错和移动切换引起的数据包丢失误归于网络发生拥塞而采取拥塞控制措施，不必要地降低了端到的吞吐率，导致自身性能的下降，首先阐述了当前无线移动网络的发展状况和TCP面临的问题，在此基础上，综述和评价了各种增强TCP性能的技术方案，最后，结合无线移动通信系统的最新进展，分析和探讨了当前存在的问题和进一步的研究方向。     

支持发射功率控制的多信道自组网MAC协议

无线自组网的介质访问控制(MAC)协议是与物理层密切相关的,大多数MAC协议都要求物理层具备载波感知能力.但在一些以小型手持设备为终端的自组网应用系统中物理层无法提供载波感知.为此,在MACA和DCA-PC的基础上,提出了一种不需要载波感知的支持功率控制的自组网多信道MAC协议,通过调整发射功率实现节能,并在一定程度上支持实时传输.     

Evaluating transport protocol performance over a wireless mesh backbone

IEEE 802.11n wireless physical layer technology increases the deployment of high throughput wireless indoor mesh backbones for ubiquitous Internet connectivity at the urban and metropolitan areas. Most of the network traffic flows in today’s Internet use ‘Transmission Control Protocol’ (TCP) as the transport layer protocol. There has been extensive works that deal with TCP issues over wireless mesh networks as well as noisy wireless channels. Further, IEEE 802.11n is well known for its susceptibility to increased channel losses during high data rate communication. This paper investigates the dynamics of an end-to-end transport layer protocol like TCP in the presence of burst and correlated losses during IEEE 802.11n high data rate communication, while maintaining fairness among all the end-to-end flows. For this purpose, we evaluate four TCP variants-Loss Tolerant TCP (LT-TCP), Network Coded TCP (TCP/NC), TCP-Horizon and Wireless Control Protocol (WCP), where the first two protocols are known to perform very well in extreme lossy networks, and the last two are specifically designed for mesh networks. Our evaluation shows that WCP performs better in a IEEE 802.11n supported mesh networks compared to other three variants. However, WCP also results in negative impact at high data rates, where end-to-end goodput drops with the increase in physical data rate. The analysis of the results reveals that explicit loss notifications and flow balancing are not sufficient to improve transport protocol performance in an IEEE 802.11n supported mesh backbone, rather a specific mechanism is required to synchronize the transport queue management with lower layer scheduling that depends on IEEE 802.11n features, like channel bonding and frame aggregation. The findings of this paper give the direction to design a new transport protocol that can utilize the full capacity of IEEE 802.11n mesh backbone.     

无线自组织网络中TCP稳定性的分析及改进

在无线自组织网络中,基于IEEE 802.11的TCP流存在严重的不稳定性,其原因与MAC协议、路由协议和TCP本身均有一定的关系,但最根本之处在于MAC协议的不公平性以及假的链路失效消息导致了不必要的耗时的路由发现过程.结合IEEE802.11的MAC协议和DSR路由协议,对这些原因进行了深入的理论分析和仿真实验,并提出了针对MAC协议和路由协议的改进算法.仿真结果证明,提出的改进算法不仅能基本上避免TCP流的不稳定性,还能够极大地提高TCP流的平均吞吐量.     

垂直切换过程中TCP协议的RTT和RTO分析

随着网络技术的发展，终端可以通过多种接入方式与网络连接，并在不同种网络之间漫游．这导致了垂直切换的产生。本文简述了垂直切换的概念和带来的问题，详细分析了TCP协议中的RTT和RTO参数在垂直切换过程中的变化情况，以及对TCP在切换过程中性能的影响，最后给出结论和一些想法，为优化TCP在移动网络中的性能，设计适用于移动网络的传输协议提供参考。     

End-to-end support for statistical quality of service in heterogeneous mobile ad hoc networks

In heterogeneous mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), different types of mobile devices with diverse capabilities may coexist in the same network. The heterogeneity of MANETs makes end-to-end support for quality of service (QoS) guarantees more difficult than in other types of networks, not to mention the limited bandwidth and frequent topology changes of these networks. Since QoS routing is the first step toward achieving end-to-end QoS guarantees in heterogeneous MANETs, we propose a QoS routing protocol for heterogeneous MANETs. The proposed protocol, called virtual grid architecture protocol (VGAP), uses a cross-layer approach in order to provide end-to-end statistical QoS guarantees. VGAP operates on a fixed virtual rectilinear architecture (virtual grid), which is obtained using location information obtained from global positioning system (GPS). The virtual grid consists of a few, but possibly more powerful, mobile nodes known as ClusterHeads (CHs) that are elected periodically. CHs discover multiple QoS routes on the virtual grid using an extended version of the open shortest path first (OSPF) routing protocol and an extended version of WFQ scheduling policy that takes into account the wireless channel state. Moreover, VGAP utilizes a simple power control algorithm at the physical layer that provides efficient energy savings in this heterogeneous setting. Simulation experiments show that VGAP has a good performance in terms of packet delivery ratio, end-to-end packet delay, call blocking probability, and network scalability.     

Implementing distributed and dynamic resource allocation in WATM

In this article a pragmatic approach for the dynamic resource allocation within the MAC layer of wireless ATM (WATM) networks is proposed. Emphasising ease of implementation and cost reduction, the protocols of MBS and Magic WAND are compared and evaluated. A novel MAC protocol called Distributed and Dynamic Resource Allocation (DADRA) is outlined. Central to this new scheme is the partial move of traffic prediction and computation into the mobile terminals, leaving the base station to co-ordinate media access based upon precise requests from the mobile terminals. The reduced processing demand on the base station may lower equipment costs and increase the number of supported connections.     

无线网络中TCP性能改进技术研究

因特网和移动通信的结合是未来通信发展的趋势，作为因特网传输层协议标准的TCP协议在未来无线网络中仍将发挥着重要作用。但是由于TCP是专为有线网络而设计的，在无线网络中的性能并不理想，因此需要对传统的TCP协议进行改进以增强其性能。文章对无线网络中TCP性能的改进技术进行了阐述，并着重对ELN协议进行了分析。     

无线网络中TCP性能改进技术研究

因特网和移动通信的结合是未来通信发展的趋势,作为因特网传输层协议标准的TCP协议在未来无线网络中仍将发挥着重要作用。但是由于TCP是专为有线网络而设计的,在无线网络中的性能并不理想,因此需要对传统的TCP协议进行改进以增强其性能。文章对无线网络中TCP性能的改进技术进行了阐述,并着重对ELN协议进行了分析。     

基于NS-2的MANET网络路由协议DSR性能研究

移动Ad hoc网络(MANET)是一组无线主机组成的没有任何建立好的基础设施的临时网络,网络拓扑高度变化自组织网络,由于其特点的限制,路由协议是其组网的关键技术和具有挑战性的问题之一,本文研究了典型的路由协议DSR的工作原理,设计了在NS-2中的仿真场景来研究分析DSR路由协议的性能和在移动网络环境中的适应性。对Ad hoc的组网和后续协议的研究具有指导意义。     

基于模糊控制的ad hoc网络TCP算法研究

TCP协议是针对固定可靠网络设计的一种传输协议,它把数据包丢失或延迟的原因都归结为网络拥塞。在移动自组网上直接应用TCP 协议,网络性能会因比特出错率高等原因大幅下降。针对无线自组织网络高误码的基本特征,基于TCP Vegas协议和环回时间的均值和方差改变趋势,采用不同的控制策略调节发送端的数据发送速率,从而优化传输控制协议的吞吐量,提高网络资源的利用率。仿真研究结果表明,与传统的传输控制协议相比,该算法具有更高的吞吐量和稳定的拥塞控制窗口。     

An anonymous distributed routing protocol in mobile ad-hoc networks

This paper proposes an efficient anonymous routing protocol for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). This protocol considers symmetric and asymmetric links during the wireless communication of MANETs. A MANET is one type of self-organized wireless network that can be formed by several wireless devices such as laptops, tablet PCs, and smartphones. Different wireless transmission ranges of different mobile devices lead to a special communication condition called an asymmetric link. Most research on this topic focuses on providing security and anonymity for the symmetric link without considering the asymmetric link. This paper proposes a novel distributed routing protocol beyond the symmetric and asymmetric links. This protocol guarantees the security, anonymity, and high reliability of an established route by avoiding unreliable intermediate nodes. The routes generated by the proposed protocol are shorter than previous research. The proposed protocol enhances MANET performance in assuring security and anonymity.