Jörg Widmer

Equation-based congestion control for unicast applications

This paper proposes a mechanism for equation-based congestion control for unicast traffic. Most best-effort traffic in the current Internet is well-served by the dominant transport protocol, TCP. However, traffic such as best-effort unicast streaming multimedia could find use for a TCP-friendly congestion control mechanism that refrains from reducing the sending rate in half in response to a single packet drop. With our mechanism, the sender explicitly adjusts its sending rate as a function of the measured rate of loss events, where a loss event consists of one or more packets dropped within a single round-trip time. We use both simulations and experiments over the Internet to explore performance.

Network coding: an instant primer

Network coding is a new research area that may have interesting applications in practical networking systems. With network coding, intermediate nodes may send out packets that are linear combinations of previously received information. There are two main benefits of this approach: potential throughput improvements and a high degree of robustness. Robustness translates into loss resilience and facilitates the design of simple distributed algorithms that perform well, even if decisions are based only on partial information. This paper is an instant primer on network coding: we explain what network coding does and how it does it. We also discuss the implications of theoretical results on network coding for realistic settings and show how network coding can be used in practice

Contention-Based Forwarding for Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

Existing position-based unicast routing algorithms which forward packets in the geographic direction of the destination require that the forwarding node knows the positions of all neighbors in its transmission range. This information on direct neighbors is gained by observing beacon messages each node sends out periodically. Due to mobility, the information that a node receives about its neighbors becomes outdated, leading either to a significant decrease in the packet delivery rate or to a steep increase in load on the wireless channel as node mobility increases. In this paper, we propose a mechanism to perform position-based unicast forwarding without the help of beacons. In our contention-based forwarding scheme (CBF) the next hop is selected through a distributed contention process based on the actual positions of all current neighbors. For the contention process, CBF makes use of biased timers. To avoid packet duplication, the first node that is selected suppresses the selection of further nodes. We propose three suppression strategies which vary with respect to forwarding efficiency and suppression characteristics. We analyze the behavior of CBF with all three suppression strategies and compare it to an existing greedy position-based routing approach by means of simulation with ns-2. Our results show that CBF significantly reduces the load on the wireless channel required to achieve a specific delivery rate compared to the load a beacon-based greedy forwarding strategy generates.

Extending equation-based congestion control to multicast applications

In this paper we introduce TFMCC, an equation-based multicast congestion control mechanism that extends the TCP-friendly TFRC protocol from the unicast to the multicast domain. The key challenges in the design of TFMCC lie in scalable round-trip time measurements, appropriate feedback suppression, and in ensuring that feedback delays in the control loop do not adversely affect fairness towards competing flows. A major contribution is the feedback mechanism, the key component of end-to-end multicast congestion control schemes. We improve upon the well-known approach of using exponentially weighted random timers by biasing feedback in favor of low-rate receivers while still preventing a response implosion. We evaluate the design using simulation, and demonstrate that TFMCC is both TCP-friendly and scales well to multicast groups with thousands of receivers. We also investigate TFMCCs weaknesses and scaling limits to provide guidance as to application domains for which it is well suited.

A Network Coding Approach to Energy Efficient Broadcasting: From Theory to Practice

We show that network coding allows to realize significant energy savings in a wireless ad-hoc network, when each node of the network is a source that wants to transmit information to all other nodes. Energy efficiency directly affects battery life and thus is a critical design parameter for wireless ad-hoc networks. We propose an implementable method for performing network coding in such a setting. We analyze theoretical cases in detail, and use the insights gained to propose a practical, fully distributed method for realistic wireless adhoc scenarios. We address practical issues such as setting the forwarding factor, managing generations, impact of transmission range and mobility. We use theoretical analysis and packet level simulation.

Hierarchical location service for mobile ad-hoc networks

Position-based routing has proven to be a scalable and efficient way for packet routing in mobile ad-hoc networks. To enable position-based routing, a node must be able to discover the location of the node it wants to communicate with. This task is typically accomplished by a location service. In this paper, we propose a novel location service called HLS (Hierarchical Location Service). HLS divides the area covered by the network into a hierarchy of regions. The top level region covers the complete network. A region is subdivided into several regions of the next lower level until the lowest level is reached. We call a lowest level region a cell. For a given node A, one specific cell is selected on each level of the hierarchy by means of hash function. As A changes its position it transmits position updates to these responsible cells. If another node wants to determine the position of A it uses the same hash function to determine the cells that may hold information about the position of A. It then proceeds to query the nodes in these cells in the order of the hierarchy until it receives a reply containing the current position of A. Because of its hierarchical approach HLS is highly scalable and particularly well suited for networks where communication partners tend to be close to each other. Due to the inherent scaling limitations of ad-hoc networks it is very likely that most ad hoc networks will display this property. Furthermore HLS is very robust to node mobility and node failures since it uses regions to select location servers and not a chain of mobile nodes as it is the case, e.g., for the well known Grid Location Service (GLS). We demonstrate these traits by providing extensive simulation data on the behaviour of HLS in a wide range of scenarios and by using GLS as a benchmark.

Position-based multicast routing for mobile Ad-hoc networks

In this paper we present Position-Based Multicast (PBM), a multicast routing algorithm for mobile ad-hoc networks which does neither require the maintenance of a distribution structure (e.g., a tree or a mesh) nor resorts to flooding of data packets. Instead a forwarding node uses information about the positions of the destinations and its own neighbors to determine the next hops that the packet should be forwarded to and is thus very well suited for highly dynamic networks. PBM is a generalization of existing position-based unicast routing protocols such as face-2 or GPSR. The key contributions of PBM are rules for the splitting of multicast packets and a repair strategy for situations where there exists no direct neighbor that makes progress toward one or more destinations. The characteristics of PBM are evaluated in detail by means of simulation.

A generic proxy system for networked computer games

In this work-in-progress report we present the general outline of a research project which aims at providing proxy support for networked computer games. The problems of both client-server and fully replicated architectures are discussed and we reason that employing proxy technology, which has been successfully used for other networked applications, is advantageous for this class of applications as well. In particular we describe how a proxy system for networked computer games can help with providing congestion control, achieving robustness, minimizing the impact of network delay and providing fairness.

Trade-off analysis of PHY-Aware MAC in low-rate low-power UWB networks

We are interested in the design of physical-layer-aware medium access control for self-organized low-power low-data-rate impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-.UWB) networks.. In such networks energy consumption is much more of a concern than achieved data rates. So far, a number of different solutions have been proposed in the context of data rate efficiency for IR-UWB. However, the choices made for rate-efficient designs are not necessarily optimal when considering energy efficiency. Hence, there is a need to understand the design trade-offs in very low-power networks, which is the aim of this article. To this end, we first identify what a PHY-aware MAC design has to achieve: interference management, access to a destination, and sleep cycle management. Second, we analyze how these functions can be implemented, and provide a list of the many possible building blocks that have been proposed in the literature. Third, we use this classification to analyze fundamental design choices. We propose a method for evaluating energy consumption already in the design phase of IR-UWB systems. Last, we apply this methodology and derive a set of guidelines; they can be used by system architects to orientate fundamental choices early in the design process.

A novel forwarding paradigm for position-based routing (with implicit addressing)

Existing position-based unicast routing algorithms, which forward packets in the geographic direction of the destination, require that the forwarding node knows the positions of all neighbors in its transmission range. This information on direct neighbors is gained by observing beacon messages each node sends out periodically. Due to mobility, the information that a node receives about its neighbors becomes outdated, leading either to a significant decrease in the packet delivery rate or to a steep increase in load on the wireless channel as node mobility increases. We describe a mechanism to perform position-based unicast forwarding without the help of beacons. In our contention-based forwarding (CBF) scheme, the next hop is selected through a distributed contention process based on the actual positions of all current neighbors. For the contention process, CBF makes use of biased timers. To avoid packet duplication, the first node that is selected suppresses the selection of further nodes. Since the basic scheme can lead to packet duplication, we describe alternative ways of suppressing those. In addition to that, we compare the CBF schemes and standard greedy forwarding by means of simulation with ns-2.