On-Ching Yue

Throughput performance of transport-layer protocols over wireless LANs

Considers the performance of transport-layer protocols over networks where one of the links is wireless. A reliable transport protocol is responsible for end-to-end data integrity, and will retransmit lost or errored data. Compared to a link over copper or fiber, a wireless link will have a much higher error rate. Link-layer retransmissions can reduce the error rate on the radio link, but the interaction of link-layer retransmission with end-to-end retransmission can be complicated. The authors have investigated, via analytic, numerical and simulation techniques, the end-to-end effects of link-layer retransmissions in the presence of a reliable end-to-end transport protocol. The results identify the mechanisms affecting end-to-end performance when retransmissions are used to get better error performance on a link. They quantify the increased load on the link due to competing retransmission strategies, and, for a transport protocol modeled on TCP, they identify the region of loss rates where link-layer retransmissions have the undesirable effects of both reducing end-to-end throughput and increasing link utilization in the network segment where bandwidth is the most expensive.<<ETX>>

Analytical Models and Performance Evaluation of Drive-thru Internet Systems

Drive-thru Internet systems are multiple-access wireless networks in which users in moving vehicles can connect to a roadside access point (AP) to obtain Internet connectivity for some period of time as the vehicles pass through the APs coverage range. In order to evaluate the type of communication services and the quality-of-service that these systems can provide, in this paper, we investigate the data communication performance of a vehicle in Drive-thru Internet systems. In particular, we derive analytical models with tractable solutions to characterize the average and the distribution of the number of bytes downloaded by a vehicle by the end of its sojourn through an APs coverage range, in the presence of other vehicles contending for the same APs resources. Our models are able to quantify the impact of road traffic density, vehicle speed, service penetration rate, APs transmission range and the corresponding bit rate, on the amount of data downloaded by an individual vehicle. In terms of analysis technique, we map the study of our vehicular data downloading process into the transient analysis of a series of Markov reward processes. Our use of Markov reward model is novel in the sense that we only select from the corresponding Markov chain, a subset of relevant sample paths that matches the required behavior of our vehicular flow model. We also validate our proposed analytical models through extensive simulations, driven by empirical vehicular traffic traces. We believe our work offers a unique analytical framework based on which the interplay between vehicular traffic parameters and a vehicles data communication performance in a Drive-thru Internet system can be studied and optimized in a systematic, quantitative manner.

Performance Modeling of Epidemic Routing with Heterogeneous Node Types

The delay performance of delay tolerant networks (DTN) can be improved by adding or replacing mobile nodes with higher mobility or transmit power. In this paper, we examine the design trade-offs in heterogeneous DTNs with two types of mobile relay nodes: normal and super. First we present the range of parameters in the Random Direction (RD) mobility model in which we have validated the Markovian assumption on the node inter-encounter intervals. Next, we describe the two-dimensional continuous time Markov chain (CTMC) model with absorption state, used for evaluating the performance of the heterogeneous DTNs. We demonstrate that the performance improvement of adding super nodes is not linear. For example, replacing 10% of the normal nodes with super nodes ones can achieve 40% of the delay reduction versus replacing all of them. Finally, Fluid Flow Approximation (FFA) and Moment Closure Methods for solving the CTMC with various error rates (about 10%) were developed to allow faster analysis of networks with large number of nodes.

Spread spectrum mobile radio, 1977-1982

In 1977, Cooper and Nettleton proposed a spread spectrum mobile radio system using frequency-hopping multiple access, Hadamard coding for error correction, and differential phase shift keyed (DPSK) modulation, and they claimed higher spectral efficiency than frequency-division (FD) FM systems. Subsequent analyses showed that the DPSK system has a spectral efficiency of 8.4 percent as compared to the efficiency of unity for a FD-FM system with 30-kHz channel spacings. Goodman et al. suggested an alternative modulation scheme in 1980, using multilevel frequency shift keying (MFSK), and a 30 percent efficiency was obtained. The research results in spread spectrum mobile radio are summarized, and the areas requiring further investigation before a commercial system can be implemented are identified.

Maximum likelihood combining for noncoherent and differentially coherent frequency-hopping multiple-access systems

The frequency-hopping multiple-access (FHMA) approach to digital mobile radio provides diversity gain against frequency selective fading. Optimum combining methods, in the maximum likelihood sense, are derived for FHMA systems with either noncoherent or differentially coherent detection. In the optimum combining structure, the detector outputs are first passed through a nonlinearity and then a linear combiner.

An Analysis of Opportunistic Routing in Wireless Mesh Network

Recently, the idea of opportunistic routing has been widely explored to improve the performance of multi-hop wireless mesh networks. Most of the previous studies use simulations or empirical measurements to evaluate the performance gain of opportunistic routing and therefore are limited to relatively few types of scenarios. In this paper, we take an analytical approach to study the potential gain of opportunistic routing in multi- hop wireless networks. Unlike other analytical studies which use a deterministic channel model, our approach captures the key characteristics of opportunistic routing, i.e. its ability to take advantage of the numerous, yet unreliable wireless links in the network in a probabilistic manner and study the effectiveness of opportunistic routing under diverse radio propagation environment using lognormal shadowing and Rayleigh fading models. Our results show that, under typical network configurations and neglect overhead, the average progress per transmission of opportunistic routing in lognormal shadowing (Rayleigh fading) environment is about 3 (1.5) times higher than that of traditional unicast routing. Finally, we also demonstrate the potential benefits of using different forwarding regions and directional antennas in opportunistic routing.

Performance of the timed token scheme in MAP

Two new analytic approximations are given for the mean delay in the timed token bus network specified in MAP (manufacturing automation protocol). Each station on the network has two kinds of timer for controlling the maximum amount of time for data transfer before giving up the token. High-priority stations would set large values in the token holding timer (THT) and transmit until the timer expires. Low-priority stations compare the elapsed time since the last token arrival (measured cycle time) to the token rotation timer (TRT) setting, and transmit only for the time left in the timer. The first approximation, based on Fuhrmanns bound for the limited-k service discipline, is for the symmetric case where all the stations have the same traffic load and the identical THT or TRT settings. The approximation has been compared to simulation results, and found to be quite accurate for a representation factory network, with THT or TRT set at two and five times the average total walk time. The second approximation is for the asymmetric case where there is one saturated low-priority (limited-TRT) station, and the rest of the stations in the network have high priority with limited-THT service. These two formulas will be useful in the planning and operation of MAP networks by providing guidance in the choice of timer settings for meeting different priority service requirements. >

Performance of Frequency-Hopping Multiple-Access Multilevel FSK Systems with Hard-Limited and Linear Combining

In comparing two proposed frequency-hopping mobile radio systems for digitized speech, Goodman et al. have observed that the system employing multiple-frequency-shift-keying (MFSK) can accommodate many more users than the ones with differential-phaseshift-keying (DPSK). Besides the difference in modulation methods, the MFSK system uses hard-limited combining while the DPSK one uses linear combining. In this paper, we show that using linear combining in the MFSK system causes the performance to degrade considerably.

Modeling resource sharing for a road-side access point supporting drive-thru internet

Drive-thru Internet systems are multiple-access wireless networks in which users in moving vehicles can connect to a road-side access point (AP) to obtain Internet connectivity for some period of time as the vehicles pass through the APs coverage range. In order to evaluate the type of communication services and the quality-of-service that these systems can provide, in this paper, we investigate the data communication performance of a vehicle in Drive-thru Internet systems. In particular, we derive practical analytical models with tractable solutions to characterize the average and the distribution of the number of bytes downloaded by a vehicle by the end of its sojourn through an APs coverage range, in the presence of other vehicles contending for the same APs resources. Our models are able to quantify the impact of road traffic density, vehicle speed, service penetration rate, APs transmission range and the corresponding bit rate, on the amount of data downloaded by an individual vehicle. In terms of analysis technique, we map the study of our vehicular data downloading process into the transient analysis of a series of Markov reward processes. Our use of Markov reward model is novel in the sense that we only select from the corresponding Markov chain, a subset of relevant sample paths that matches the required behavior of our vehicular flow model. Using simulations, we also perform sensitivity analysis to verify our modeling assumptions. We believe our work offers a unique analytical framework based on which the interplay between vehicular traffic parameters and a vehicles data communication performance in a Drive-thru Internet system can be studied and optimized in a systematic, quantitative manner.

Forwarding and Replication Strategies for DTN with Resource Constraints

Disruption tolerant network (DTN) refers to the type of sparse mobile ad hoc network where the nodes are connected intermittently. A common strategy to cope with intermittent network connectivity is to use multiple-copy routing for message delivery. However, the resultant replicates of messages incur significant burden on the bandwidth and storage requirements of each node. In this paper, we investigate the effect of excessive message-replications in multiple-copy routing in DTNs under communication bandwidth and buffer constraints. By modeling the message delivery process as a Markov chain, we first analytically derive the delivery latency as a function of message-replication limit for the single-message-delivery case. The performance of the multiple-message-multiple-flow case is then evaluated via extensive simulations. For the latter, we observe that there is an optimal value for the message-replication limit of each message beyond which network performance will degrade. Finally, we propose an alternative forwarding and message-dropping strategy to address the problem of unfairness found in the basic FIFO-with-blocking strategy. Our results show that the average message delivery delay can be reduced by as much as 25% with the proposed scheme.