A novel scheme for mobility management in heterogeneous wireless networks

In this paper, we present a mobility management scheme for real-time multimedia sessions over heterogeneous wireless networks. Most approaches in the current literature use Mobile IP (MIP) or Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to maintain real-time sessions during mobility. In this paper, we analyze MIP and SIP in terms of the mobility rate, packet loss and packet overheads in the user plane and propose a mechanism by which the network can choose the optimum protocol for mobility management. We perform the analysis for constant bit rate (CBR) as well as for variable bit rate (VBR) traffic. We show that for CBR traffic, the proposed mechanism leads to 12–35% improvement in the system capacity, while for VBR traffic, capacity improvements ranging from about 35–50% can be obtained. Our proposed approach and the analysis are applicable to handovers between different IP domains both in homogeneous as well as in heterogeneous wireless networks.     

Managing connection costs in heterogeneous wireless networks

Common Radio Resource Management techniques have shown great promise in both enhancing network operation and user satisfication. Such gains are achieved through the joint management of the individual access technologies in a Heterogeneous Wireless Network. The objective of this work is to expand on the existing body of work to accommodate heterogeneity not just at the traditional access‐network level but to other connectivity modes such as dynamic spectrum access. Such modes affect operator profitability in both the long and short terms. Specifically, we explore the design of a cost‐management model that adapts to the short‐term variability in connectivity costs. We also display the operational aspects and effectiveness of this functionality through both simulation and an analytical model. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new handoff management system for heterogeneous wireless access networks

In heterogeneous wireless access networks, each mobile terminal may frequently need to change its base station (BS); this change is called a ‘handoff’. BSs have static parameters, which are related to their radio access technologies (RATs); however, they also contain dynamic parameters such as load and signal quality. Therefore, the problem of handoff decision includes two subproblems of RAT selection and BS selection. In this paper, first a ‘heterogeneous handoff management system’ for gathering all different required parameters is proposed. Second, a RAT Selection algorithm based on analytic hierarchy process and a BS Selection algorithm based on data envelopment analysis are designed. Finally, by means of ‘weight restriction’ technique, we develop a method for studying the impact of RAT Selection parameters on the performance of the network. Simulation results indicate that RAT Selection parameters have significant impact on the bandwidth utilization, energy consumption and the whole satisfaction of the users in heterogeneous wireless access networks.Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Long-term rate control for concurrent multipath real-time video transmission in heterogeneous wireless networks

Concurrent multipath transmission provides an effective solution for streaming high-quality mobile videos in heterogeneous wireless networks. Rate control is commonly adopted in multimedia communication systems to fully utilize the available network bandwidth. This paper proposes a novel rate control for concurrent multipath video transmission. The existing rate control algorithms mainly adapt bit rate in the short-term pattern, i.e., without considering the long-term video transmission quality. We propose a long-term rate control scheme that takes into account the status of both the transmission buffer and video frames. First, a mathematical model is developed to formulate the non-convex problem of long-term quality maximization. Second, we develop a dynamic programming solution for online encoding bit rate control based on buffer status. The performance evaluation is conducted in a real test bed over LTE and Wi-Fi networks. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed long-term rate control scheme achieves appreciable improvements over the short-term rate control schemes in terms of video quality and delay performance.     

Signal threshold adaptation for vertical handoff in heterogeneous wireless networks

The convergence of heterogeneous wireless access technologies has been envisioned to characterize the next generation wireless networks. In such converged systems, the seamless and efficient handoff between different access technologies (vertical handoff) is essential and remains a challenging problem. The heterogeneous co-existence of access technologies with largely different characteristics results in handoff asymmetry that differs from the traditional intra-network handoff (horizontal handoff) problem. In the case where one network is preferred, the vertical handoff decision should be carefully executed, based on the wireless channel state, network layer characteristics, as well as application requirements. In this paper, we study the performance of vertical handoff using the integration of 3G cellular and wireless local area networks as an example. In particular, we investigate the effect of an application-based signal strength threshold on an adaptive preferred-network lifetime-based handoff strategy, in terms of the signalling load, available bandwidth, and packet delay for an inter-network roaming mobile. We present an analytical framework to evaluate the converged system performance, which is validated by computer simulation. We show how the proposed analytical model can be used to provide design guidelines for the optimization of vertical handoff in the next generation integrated wireless networks. This article is the extended version of a paper presented in IFIP Networking 2005 Ahmed H. Zahran is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto. He received both his M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Electronics and Electrical Communication Department in the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University in 2002 and 2000 respectively, where he was holding teaching and research positions. Since September 2003, he has been working as a research assistant in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto under the supervision of Professor Ben Liang. His research interest is wireless communication and networking with an emphasis on the design and analysis of networking protocols and algorithms. Ben Liang received honors simultaneous B.Sc. (valedictorian) and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, New York, in 1997 and the PhD degree in Electrical Engineering with Computer Science minor from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in 2001. In the 2001–2002 academic year, he was a visiting lecturer and post-doctoral research associate at Cornell University. He joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto as an Assistant Professor in 2002. His current research interests are in the areas of mobile networking and wireless multimedia systems. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi, IEEE, and ACM and serves on the organization and technical program committees of a number of major conferences each year. Aladdin Saleh earned his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from London University, England. Since March 1998, Dr. Saleh has been working in the Wireless Technology Department of Bell Canada, the largest service provider of wireless, wire-line, and Internet in Canada. He worked as a senior application architect in the wireless data group working on several projects among them the wireless application protocol (WAP) and the location-based services. Later, he led the work on several key projects in the broadband wireless network access planning group including planning of the IEEE 802.16/ Wimax, the IEEE 802.11/ WiFi, and the integration of these technologies with the 3G cellular network including Mobile IP (MIP) deployment. Dr. Saleh also holds the position of Adjunct Full Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of Waterloo University, Canada since January 2004. He is currently conducting several joint research projects with the University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto on IEEE 802.16-Wimax, MIMO technology, interworking of IEEE 802.11 WLAN and 3G cellular networks, and next generation wireless networks. Prior to joining Bell Canada, Dr. Saleh worked as a faculty member at different universities and was Dean and Chairman of Department for several years. Dr. Saleh is a Fellow of IEE and a Senior Member of IEEE.     

Performance evaluation of softer vertical handovers in multiuser heterogeneous wireless networks

In the future fifth generation (5G) networked society, devices will integrate heterogeneous radio access technologies (RATs) to improve the network performance and the user quality of experience. In this paper, we focus on softer vertical handover (SRVH), discussing its feasibility and its performance in a multiuser scenario. Specifically, a new taxonomy for vertical handovers is proposed to resolve ambiguities in current terminology and technical issues related to SRVH implementation are discussed. Then, a simple but accurate analytical model is proposed to evaluate the performance of SRVH and results are provided with reference to best effort services in the presence of two RATs. Two case studies are considered, a mobile controlled approach with uncoordinated RATs and a network controlled approach with coordination among RATs. Results demonstrate that SRVHs are useful to allow finer granularity in resource allocation when there is coordination among RATs, although they fail to provide throughput improvements if they are selfishly performed by mobile terminals.     

Performance enhancement of multiuser MIMO wireless communication systems

This paper describes a new approach to the problem of enhancing the performance of a multiuser multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) system for communication from one base station to many mobile stations in both frequency-flat and frequency-selective fading channels. This problem arises in space-division multiplexing systems with multiple users where many independent signal streams can be transmitted in the same frequency and time slot through the exploitation of multiple antennas at both the base and mobile stations. Our new approach is based on maximizing a lower bound for the product of signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) of a multiuser MIMO system. This provides a closed-form (noniterative) solution for the antenna weights for all the users, under the constraint of fixed transmit power. Our solution is shown by simulation to have better performance than previously proposed iterative or noniterative solutions. In addition, our solution requires significantly reduced complexity over a gradient search-based method that directly optimizes the product SINRs while still maintaining similar performance. Our solution assumes channel state information is present at the base station or transmitter.     

基于干扰消除的异构蜂窝网络中断分析

在异构网络中,小小区可以为宏基站用户提供接入服务,并能够根据自身条件调节传输参数。该文研究在宏基站端干扰消除技术,来消除宏基站到小小区用户的干扰。该文分析了采用此种方案后异构网络下行链路的整体性能,推导了宏基站和小小区用户接收端信噪比的概率密度函数和分布函数。在此基础上,得到了系统整体中断概率的闭合表达式。理论推导和仿真结果表明,干扰消除方案能够有效提升异构蜂窝网络的整体性能。     

On the Performance of Broadband Mobile Internet Access System

In this paper, we evaluate the performance of OFDMA/TDD-based broadband mobile internet access system with the features of adaptive modulation & coding (AMC) and hybrid ARQ. We present a framework of system-level simulation and furthermore, intend to derive the insightful results towards understanding the performance of broadband mobile internet access system. The average system throughput as well as delay performance is evaluated for the different channel characteristics and system parameters, which allows for predicting the system capacity in the varying cellular network environment.

Seamless session mobility scheme in heterogeneous wireless networks

The next generation wireless communication system will likely be heterogeneous networks, as various technologies can be integrated on heterogeneous networks. A mobile multiple‐mode device can easily access the Internet through different wireless interfaces. The mobile multiple‐mode device thus could switch to different access points to maintain the robustness of the connection when it can acquire more resources from other heterogeneous wireless networks. The mobile multiple‐mode device therefore needs to face the handover problem in such environment. This work introduces Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)‐based cross‐layer scheme to support seamless handover scheme over heterogeneous networks. The proposed scheme consists of a battery lifetime‐based handover policy and cross‐layer fast handover scheme, called the SIP‐based mobile stream control transmission protocol (SmSCTP). This work describes the major idea of the proposed scheme and infrastructure. The proposed scheme has been implemented in Linux system. The simulation and numerical results demonstrate that the proposed SmSCTP scheme yields better signaling cost, hand‐off delay time, packet loss and delay jitter than SIP and mSCTP protocols. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

HISNs: Distributed gateways for application-level integration of heterogeneous wireless networks

Integration of different kinds of wireless networks to provide people seamless and continuous network access services is a major issue in the B3G network. In this paper, we propose and implement a novel Heterogeneous network Integration Support Node design (HISN) and a distributed HISN network architecture for the integration of heterogeneous networks, under which the Session Mobility, Personal Mobility, and Terminal Mobility for mobile users can be maintained through the Session Management mechanism. Thus, the HISN node can serve as an agent for the user to access Internet services independent of underlying communication infrastructure. Our design is transparent to the bearer networks and the deployment of the HISN network does not need to involve the operators of the heterogeneous wireless networks. This paper is an extension of the work that won the championship of the Mobile Hero contest sponsored by Industrial Development Bureau of Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan, R.O.C., and was awarded USD 30,000. The work of Lin, Chang and Cheng was supported in part by the National Science Council (NSC), R.O.C, under the contract number NSC94-2213-E-002-083 and NSC94-2213-E-002-090, and NSC 94-2627-E-002-001, Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), R.O.C., under contract number 93-EC-17-A-05-S1-0017, the Computer and Communications Researches Labs/Industrial Technology Research Institute (CCL/ITRL), Chunghwa Telecom Labs, Telcordia Applied Research Center, Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC), and Microsoft Corporation, Taiwan. The work of Fang was supported in part by the US National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award under grant ANI-0093241 and US National Science Foundation under grant DBI-0529012. Phone Lin (M’02-SM’06) received his BSCSIE degree and Ph.D. degree from National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, R.O.C. in 1996 and 2001, respectively. From August 2001 to July 2004, he was an Assistant Professor in Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering (CSIE), National Taiwan University, R.O.C. Since August 2004, he has been an Associate Professor in Department of CSIE and Graduate Institute of Networking and Multimedia, National Taiwan University, R.O.C. His current research interests include personal communications services, wireless Internet, and performance modeling. Dr. Lin is an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, a Guest Editor for IEEE Wireless Communications special issue on Mobility and Resource Management, and a Guest Editor for ACM/Springer MONET special issue on Wireless Broad Access. He is also an Associate Editorial Member for the WCMC Journal. P. Lin’s email and website addresses are plin@csie.ntu.edu.tw and http://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/∼plin, respectively. Huan-Ming Chang received the BSCSIE degree and Master CSIE degree from National Taiwan University, R.O.C. in 2003 and 2005, respectively. His current research interest includes wireless Internet. H.-M. Chang’s email address is r91114@csie.ntu.edu.tw. Yuguang Fang received a Ph.D. degree in Systems and Control Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in January 1994, and a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Boston University in May 1997. From June 1997 to July 1998, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor in Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas. From July 1998 to May 2000, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology. In May 2000, he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Florida where he got the early promotion to Associate Professor with tenure in August 2003 and to Full Professor in August 2005. He has published over 180 papers in refereed professional journals and conferences. He received the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Award in 2001 and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award in 2002. He is currently serving as an Editor for many journals including IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, and ACM Wireless Networks. He is also actively participating in conference organization such as the Program Vice-Chair for IEEE INFOCOM’2005, Program Co-Chair for the Global Internet and Next Generation Networks Symposium in IEEE Globecom’2004 and the Program Vice Chair for 2000 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC’2000). Shin-Ming Cheng received the BSCSIE degree in 2000 from National Taiwan University, Taiwan, R.O.C., where he is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Taiwan University. His current research interests include mobile computing, personal communications services, and wireless Internet. S.-M. Cheng’s email and website addresses are shimi@pcs.csie.ntu.edu.tw and http://www.pcs.csie.ntu.edu.tw/∼shimi, respectively.     

异构无线网络垂直切换技术综述

垂直切换是多网融合的基础,是实现异构网络互通、支持不同接入方式无缝衔接的核心技术,目前正在受到业界的重点关注,并成为学术界研究的热点问题。随着无线移动通信技术向接入多元化、网络一体化和应用综合化的方向发展,各种蜂窝移动接入、宽带无线接入和固定接入将共同接入基于IP的统一核心网络,通过网络间的垂直切换,支持用户的移动性和移动过程中业务的连续性。首先给出了垂直切换的定义和基本概念,介绍了垂直切换的分类和基本流程,随后详细论述垂直切换的切换判决和切换执行2个环节。针对切换判决,总结了现有判决算法,重点评述各代表算法工作原理并剖析论其特点和存在的不足。针对切换执行,详述了现有垂直切换执行机制的工作原理和适用场景,并分析其优缺点。最后,对未来垂直切换技术的研究方向进行了展望。     

基于稳定闭域的异构无线网络混合路由策略

分析了异构的网络模型,并提出了一种基于MANET稳定闭域的混合路由策略,使得基于该路由策略设计的路由协议能够实时地根据本地拓扑状态进行转换,在稳定闭域内使用AODV提高路由转发的效率。当数据分组转发到闭域边界后,将转换为改进的Prophet路由继续在非连通区域内寻路,以充分利用MANET与DTN路由的优势。仿真实验证明了该路由策略的可行性,通过比较多种路由算法验证了在特定的异构网络环境下该路由策略的高效性。     

Cellular IP address provisioning in a heterogeneous wireless network

In this article, we propose a dynamic Internet Protocol (IP) address assignment architecture for heterogeneous wireless IP devices network. The IP device could be a sensor device, a laptop, a cell phone, or any wireless device using IP communications. The proposed architecture introduces security and service reliability to the consumer while reducing the operational expenditure for the service providers. According to the proposed scheme, each node maintains an IP address pool storing the current occupancy of each IP address. Each node advertises its database whenever the ratio of negative acknowledgments from the domain name server to the total number of requests at a given node exceeds a certain threshold. We evaluate our IP assignment scheme under two traffic intensity scenarios, namely the uniform traffic intensity and the heterogeneous traffic intensity. Performance evaluation is carried out with respect to blocking probability and average IP list utilization. We define three types of blocking probability for the user requests as follows: The real blocking, the unjustified acceptance, and the unjustified rejection. We observe that the proposed scheme outperforms the uniform assignment as long as the threshold is below 1.5% for the uniform intensity scenario and 1% for the heterogeneous scenario. Furthermore, this architecture considers the security aspect of the wireless network by allowing only registered devices to communicate with other registered devices. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

多业务无线网络中基于最佳等信干比的功率控制

功率控制技术是无线网络的关键技术之一。为改进多业务无线网络中基于非合作博弈的功率控制算法中纳什均衡的帕累托有效性,引入数据终端的最佳等信干比概念,使得系统中所有数据终端都工作在最佳的等信干比下,语音终端工作在语音通信服务质量门限的目标信干比门限之下。推导出一个新的分布式基于最佳等信干比的功率控制算法。仿真表明,该算法明显提高了系统的服务质量,系统中终端均具有相对较高的效用和较低的发射功率,还使得无线网络资源的使用更加合理和公平。     

Sensor selection for source extraction in heterogeneous wireless sensor networks

A sensor selection scheme for source extraction in heterogeneous wireless sensor networks is proposed. The proposed scheme selects the sensors corresponding to the reconstructed mixtures with the largest signal‐to‐noise‐ratios to transmit their data to a fusion center. It exploits the heterogeneity of the sensor observations and reduces the amount of transmissions. The results demonstrate that the proposed scheme outperforms the full utilization scheme and the random selection scheme. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cross-layer modeling of adaptive wireless links for QoS support in heterogeneous wired-wireless networks

Future wired-wireless multimedia networks require diverse quality-of-service (QoS) support. To this end, it is essential to rely on QoS metrics pertinent to wireless links. In this paper, we develop a cross-layer model for adaptive wireless links, which enables derivation of the desired QoS metrics analytically from the typical wireless parameters across the hardware-radio layer, the physical layer and the data link layer. We illustrate the advantages of our model: generality, simplicity, scalability and backward compatibility. Finally, we outline its applications to power control, TCP, UDP and bandwidth scheduling in wireless networks. The work by Q. Liu and G. B. Giannakis are prepared through collaborative participation in the Communications and Networks Consortium sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory under the Collaborative Technology Alliance Program, Cooperative Agreement DAAD19-01-2-0011. The U.S. Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for Government purposes notwithstanding any copyright notation thereon. The work by S. Zhou is supported by UConn Research Foundation internal grant 445157. Qingwen Liu (S’04) received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering and information science in 2001, from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). He received the M.S. degree in electrical engineering in 2003, from the University of Minnesota (UMN). He currently pursues his Ph.D. degree in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota (UMN). His research interests lie in the areas of communications, signal processing, and networking, with emphasis on cross-layer analysis and design, quality of service support for multimedia applications over wired-wireless networks, and resource allocation. Shengli Zhou (M’03) received the B.S. degree in 1995 and the M.Sc. degree in 1998, from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), both in electrical engineering and information science. He received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota, 2002, and joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Connecticut, 2003. His research interests lie in the areas of communications and signal processing, including channel estimation and equalization, multi-user and multi-carrier communications, space time coding, adaptive modulation, and cross-layer designs. He serves as an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications since Feb. 2005. G. B. Giannakis (Fellow’97) received his Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, 1981. From September 1982 to July 1986 he was with the University of Southern California (USC), where he received his MSc. in Electrical Engineering, 1983, MSc. in Mathematics, 1986, and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, 1986. After lecturing for one year at USC, he joined the University of Virginia in 1987, where he became a professor of Electrical Engineering in 1997. Since 1999 he has been a professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota, where he now holds an ADC Chair in Wireless Telecommunications. His general interests span the areas of communications and signal processing, estimation and detection theory, time-series analysis, and system identification -- subjects on which he has published more than 200 journal papers, 350 conference papers and two edited books. Current research focuses on transmitter and receiver diversity techniques for single- and multi-user fading communication channels, complex-field and space-time coding, multicarrier, ultra-wide band wireless communication systems, cross-layer designs and sensor networks. G. B. Giannakis is the (co-) recipient of six paper awards from the IEEE Signal Processing (SP) and Communications Societies (1992, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004). He also received the SP Society’s Technical Achievement Award in 2000. He served as Editor in Chief for the IEEE SP Letters, as Associate Editor for the IEEE Trans. on Signal Proc. and the IEEE SP Letters, as secretary of the SP Conference Board, as member of the SP Publications Board, as member and vice-chair of the Statistical Signal and Array Processing Technical Committee, as chair of the SP for Communications Technical Committee and as a member of the IEEE Fellows Election Committee. He has also served as a member of the IEEE-SP Society’s Board of Governors, the Editorial Board for the Proceedings of the IEEE and the steering committee of the IEEE Trans. on Wireless Communications.     

无线实时多播系统中混合纠删方案性能分析与评估

为了对无线实时多播系统中纠删方案的性能进行精确的分析与评估,提出基于GE(Gilbert-Elliot)信道模型与实际实验数据的精确分析与统计评估方法。提出一种分析混合纠删方案性能的闭式表达式,并设计基于WLAN的实时多播验证与评估系统,在此基础上,采用极大似然估计方法对实验数据进行统计评估。结果表明,GE模型能精确匹配实际删除错误信道,且待评估纠删方案的理论分析结果与实际测试结果基本一致,验证了该方法的精确性,提出的方法对精确分析评估各种纠删方案在无线实时多播系统中的性能具有参考和借鉴意义。     

QoS-supporting video streaming system with minimum data service cost over heterogeneous wireless networks

This paper presents a video streaming system that supports quality-of-service by effectively consolidating multiple physical paths in a cost-effective way over heterogeneous wireless networks. In the proposed system, the fountain encoding symbols of compressed video data are transmitted through multiple physical paths concurrently to overcome the limitation of single path transmission and harmonize multiple physical paths with diverse characteristics effectively, and the number of transmitted packets is determined by considering the requested quality-of-service of video streaming and the data service cost. The proposed system is fully implemented in Java and C/C++, and tested over real WLAN and LTE networks. Experimental results are provided to demonstrate the performance improvement of the proposed system.     

End-to-end utility-based resource allocation for multi-RAT nodes in heterogeneous cognitive wireless networks

This paper studies the problem of effective resource allocation for multi-radio access technologies (Multi-RAT) nodes in heterogeneous cognitive wireless networks (HCWNs). End-to-end utility, which is defined as the delay of end-to-end communication, is taken into account in this paper. In the scenario of HCWNs, it is assumed that the cognitive radio nodes have the ability of Multi-RAT and can communicate with each other through different paths simultaneously by splitting the arrival packets. In this paper, the problem is formulated as the optimization of split ratio and power allocation of the source cognitive radio node to minimize the delay of end-to-end communication, and a low complexity step-by-step iterative algorithm is proposed. Numerical results show good performance of the proposed algorithm over two other conventional algorithms.