In this paper, we present a generic plug-and-play controller that ensures fair and efficient operation of IEEE 802.11 infrastructure wireless local area networks with multiple co-channel access points, without any change to hardware firmware of the network devices. Our controller addresses performance issues of TCP transfers in multi-AP WLANs, by overlaying a coarse time-slicing scheduler on top of a cascaded fair queuing scheduler. The time slices and queue weights, used in our controller, are obtained from the solution of a constrained utility optimization formulation. A study of the impact of coarse time-slicing on TCP is also presented in this paper. We present an improved algorithm for adaptation of the service rate of the fair queuing scheduler and provide experimental results to illustrate its efficacy. We also present the changes that need to be incorporated to the proposed approach, to handle short-lived and interactive TCP flows. Finally, we report the results of experiments performed on a real testbed, demonstrating the efficacy of our controller.
In @cite_2 , introduce MIDAS, a management framework that addresses under-served links by throttling traffic to the interfering links. Based on the notion of Activity Share'' that they introduce, the authors propose a method to assess the potential throughput gain that the under-served link can experience, when hindering transmissions are rate-limited. MIDAS limits the rate at which traffic is sent to the interfering links, so that the under-served link's activity share improves. While MIDAS improves the air time'' of under-served links, there are no flow-level system objectives that drive the target activity share. Such flow-level system objectives are indispensable in networks with Quality-of-Service (QoS) guarantees.
@cite_2
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We consider the problem of resource allocation in downlink OFDMA systems for multi service and unknown environment. Due to users' mobility and intercell interference, the base station cannot predict neither the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) of each user in future time slots nor their probability distribution functions. In addition, the traffic is bursty in general with unknown arrival. The probability distribution functions of the SNR, channel state and traffic arrival density are then unknown. Achieving a multi service Quality of Service (QoS) while optimizing the performance of the system (e.g. total throughput) is a hard and interesting task since it depends on the unknown future traffic and SNR values. In this paper we solve this problem by modeling the multiuser queuing system as a discrete time linear dynamic system. We develop a robust H∞ controller to regulate the queues of different users. The queues and Packet Drop Rates (PDR) are controlled by proposing a minimum data rate according to the demanded service type of each user. The data rate vector proposed by the controller is then fed as a constraint to an instantaneous resource allocation framework. This instantaneous problem is formulated as a convex optimization problem for instantaneous subcarrier and power allocation decisions. Simulation results show small delays and better fairness among users. We investigate a wireless system of multiple cells, each having a downlink shared channel in support of high-speed packet data services. In practice, such a system consists of hierarchically organized entities including a central server, Base Stations (BSs), and Mobile Stations (MSs). Our goal is to improve global resource utilization and reduce regional congestion given asymmetric arrivals and departures of mobile users, a goal requiring load balancing among multiple cells. For this purpose, we propose a scalable cross-layer framework to coordinate packet-level scheduling, call-level cell-site selection and handoff, and system-level cell coverage based on load, throughput, and channel measurements. In this framework, an opportunistic scheduling algorithm--the weighted Alpha-Rule--exploits the gain of multiuser diversity in each cell independently, trading aggregate (mean) down-link throughput for fairness and minimum rate guarantees among MSs. Each MS adapts to its channel dynamics and the load fluctuations in neighboring cells, in accordance with MSs' mobility or their arrival and departure, by initiating load-aware handoff and cell-site selection. The central server adjusts schedulers of all cells to coordinate their coverage by prompting cell breathing or distributed MS handoffs. Across the whole system, BSs and MSs constantly monitor their load, throughput, or channel quality in order to facilitate the overall system coordination. Our specific contributions in such a framework are highlighted by the minimum-rate guaranteed weighted Alpha-Rule scheduling, the load-aware MS handoff cell-site selection, and the Media Access Control (MAC)-layer cell breathing. Our evaluations show that the proposed framework can improve global resource utilization and load balancing, resulting in a smaller blocking rate of MS arrivals without extra resources while the aggregate throughput remains roughly the same or improved at the hot-spots. Our simulation tests also show that the coordinated system is robust to dynamic load fluctuations and is scalable to both the system dimension and the size of MS population. A resource allocation framework is presented for spectrum underlay in cognitive wireless networks. We consider both interference constraints for primary users and quality of service (QoS) constraints for secondary users. Specifically, interference from secondary users to primary users is constrained to be below a tolerable limit. Also, signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) of each secondary user is maintained higher than a desired level for QoS insurance. We propose admission control algorithms to be used during high network load conditions which are performed jointly with power control so that QoS requirements of all admitted secondary users are satisfied while keeping the interference to primary users below the tolerable limit. If all secondary users can be supported at minimum rates, we allow them to increase their transmission rates and share the spectrum in a fair manner. We formulate the joint power rate allocation with proportional and max-min fairness criteria as optimization problems. We show how to transform these optimization problems into a convex form so that their globally optimal solutions can be obtained. Numerical results show that the proposed admission control algorithms achieve performance very close to that of the optimal solution. Also, impacts of different system and QoS parameters on the network performance are investigated for the admission control, and rate power allocation algorithms under different fairness criteria. In wireless ATM-based networks, admission control is required to reserve resources in advance for calls requiring guaranteed services. In the case of a multimedia call, each of its substreams (i.e., video, audio, and data) has its own distinct quality of service (QoS) requirements (e.g., cell loss rate, delay, jitter, etc.). The network attempts to deliver the required QoS by allocating an appropriate amount of resources (e.g., bandwidth, buffers). The negotiated QoS requirements constitute a certain QoS level that remains fixed during the call (static allocation approach). Accordingly, the corresponding allocated resources also remain unchanged. We present and analyze an adaptive allocation of resources algorithm based on genetic algorithms. In contrast to the static approach, each substream declares a preset range of acceptable QoS levels (e.g., high, medium, low) instead of just a single one. As the availability of resources in the wireless network varies, the algorithm selects the best possible QoS level that each substream can obtain. In case of congestion, the algorithm attempts to free up some resources by degrading the QoS levels of the existing calls to lesser ones. This is done, however, under the constraint of achieving maximum utilization of the resources while simultaneously distributing them fairly among the calls. The degradation is limited to a minimum value predefined in a user-defined profile (UDP). Genetic algorithms have been used to solve the optimization problem. From the user perspective, the perception of the QoS degradation is very graceful and happens only during overload periods. The network services, on the other hand, are greatly enhanced due to the fact that the call blocking probability is significantly decreased. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm performs well in terms of increasing the number of admitted calls while utilizing the available bandwidth fairly and effectively. A regional central manager is employed to set aside, for the regional (or back-bone) network that it manages, for each flow class, communications capacity resources for a specific future time horizon. In the context of such a traffic management operation, a longer temporal scale is involved in controlling the admission and distribution of flows across the network. For management scal-ability purposes, flows are aggregated into flow classes. Furthermore, we consider a network operation under which multiple simultaneously activated routes are employed, across possibly distinct segments, to distribute traffic between identified source-destination pairs. We aim to ensure that the utility assigned to each class is as high as feasibly possible while striving to raise the utility gained by all classes in a maxmin fair manner. In doing so, we incorporate the communications capacity constraints that are imposed by the underlying hybrid of directional and or multiple-access wireline and wireless communications media employed across the network system. We develop and present in this paper an optimal algorithm for solving such a traffic management problem. It yields multi-utility-based max-min fair distributions of flow rates, per each class, across the specified multitude of simultaneously activated multi-segment routes. To guarantee that admitted flows are granted their desired capacity resources (and targeted corresponding utility levels), the selection of optimal flow distributions across the network routes is combined with the use of a flow admission control scheme that serves to optimally limit the aggregate rate of flows admitted for each flow class. As illustrative examples, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our solution in comparing its performance with that obtained under the use of a traffic regulation scheme that is not overlaid with a traffic management mechanism that serves to set aside resources for the support of flow classes. We also illustrate the use of our optimal algorithm for determining the optimal placement of unmanned aerial vehicle platforms that serve to supplement a terrestrial transport segment with a space-based one. We consider a multiclass multiplexer with support for multiple service classes and dedicated buffers for each service class. Under specific scheduling policies for sharing bandwidth among these classes, we seek the asymptotic (as the buffer size goes to infinity) tail of the buffer overflow probability for each dedicated buffer. We assume dependent arrival and service processes as is usually the case in models of bursty traffic. In the standard large deviations methodology, we provide a lower and a matching (up to first degree in the exponent) upper bound on the buffer overflow probabilities. We introduce a novel optimal control approach to address these problems. In particular, we relate the lower bound derivation to a deterministic optimal control problem, which we explicitly solve. Optimal state trajectories of the control problem correspond to typical congestion scenarios. We explicitly and in detail characterize the most likely modes of overflow. We specialize our results to the generalized processor sharing policy (GPS) and the generalized longest queue first policy (GLQF). The performance of strict priority policies is obtained as a corollary. We compare the GPS and GLQF policies and conclude that GLQF achieves smaller overflow probabilities than GPS for all arrival and service processes for which our analysis holds. Our results have important implications for traffic management of high-speed networks and can be used as a basis for an admission control mechanism which guarantees a different loss probability for each class. Consider network coded multicast traffic over a wireless network in the bandwidth limited regime. We formulate the joint medium access and subgraph optimization problem by means of a graphical conflict model. The nature of network coded flows is not captured by classical link-based scheduling and therefore requires a novel approach based on conflicting hyperarcs. By means of simulations, we evaluate the performance of our algorithm and conclude that it significantly outperforms existing scheduling techniques. We consider QoS-aware spectrum sharing in cognitive wireless networks where secondary users are allowed to access the spectrum owned by a primary network provider. The interference from secondary users to primary users is constrained to be below the tolerable limit. Also, signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) of each secondary user is maintained higher than a desired level for QoS insurance. When network load is high, admission control needs to be performed to satisfy both QoS and interference constraints. We propose an admission control algorithm which is performed jointly with power control such that QoS requirements of all admitted secondary users are satisfied while keeping the interference to primary users below the tolerable limit. When all secondary users can be supported at minimum rates, we allow them to increase their transmission rates and share the spectrum in a fair manner. We formulate the joint power rate allocation with max-min fairness criterion as an optimization problem. We show how to transform it into a convex optimization problem so that its globally optimal solution can be obtained. Numerical results show that the proposed admission control algorithm achieves performance very close to the optimal solution. Also, impacts of different system and QoS parameters on the network performance are investigated for both admission control and rate power allocation problems. Consider media streaming in MIMO interference networks whereby multiple base stations (BS) simultaneously deliver media to their associated users using fixed data rates. The performance is fundamentally limited by the cross-link interference. We propose a cache-induced opportunistic cooperative MIMO (CoMP) for interference mitigation. By caching a portion of the media files, the BSs opportunistically employ CoMP to transform the cross-link interference into spatial multiplexing gain. We study a mixed-timescale optimization of MIMO precoding and cache control to minimize the transmit power under the rate constraint. The cache control is to create more CoMP opportunities and is adaptive to the long-term popularity of the media files. The precoding is to guarantee the rate requirement and is adaptive to the channel state information and cache state at the BSs. The joint stochastic optimization problem is decomposed into a short-term precoding and a long-term cache control problem. We propose a precoding algorithm which converges to a stationary point of the short-term problem. Based on this, we exploit the hidden convexity of the long-term problem and propose a low complexity and robust solution using stochastic subgradient. The solution has significant gains over various baselines and does not require explicit knowledge of the media popularity. The goal of this paper is to determine the data routes, subchannel schedules, and power allocations that maximize a weighted-sum rate of the data communicated over a generic OFDMA wireless network in which the nodes are capable of simultaneously transmitting, receiving and relaying data. Two instances are considered. In the first instance, subchannels are allowed to be time-shared by multiple links, whereas in the second instance, each subchannel is exclusively used by one of the links. Using a change of variables, the first problem is transformed into a convex form. In contrast, the second problem is not amenable to such a transformation and results in a complex mixed integer optimization problem. To develop insight into this problem, we utilize the first instance to obtain efficiently computable lower and upper bounds on the weighted-sum rate that can be achieved in the absence of time-sharing. Another lower bound is obtained by enforcing the scheduling constraints through additional power constraints and a monomial approximation technique to formulate the design problem as a geometric program. Numerical investigations show that the obtained rates are higher when time-sharing is allowed, and that the lower bounds on rates in the absence of time-sharing are relatively tight. We consider wireless LANs such as IEEE 802.11 operating in the unlicensed radio spectrum. While their nominal bit rates have increased considerably, the MAC layer remains practically unchanged despite much research effort spent on improving its performance. We observe that most proposals for tuning the access method focus on a single aspect and disregard others. Our objective is to define an access method optimized for throughput and fairness, able to dynamically adapt to physical channel conditions, to operate near optimum for a wide range of error rates, and to provide equal time shares when hosts use different bit rates.We propose a novel access method derived from 802.11 DCF [2] (Distributed Coordination Function) in which all hosts use similar values of the contention window CW to benefit from good short-term access fairness. We call our method Idle Sense, because each host observes the mean number of idle slots between transmission attempts to dynamically control its contention window. Unlike other proposals, Idle Sense enables each host to estimate its frame error rate, which can be used for switching to the right bit rate. We present simulations showing how the method leads to high throughput, low collision overhead, and low delay. The method also features fast reactivity and time-fair channel allocation. We propose to add a new dimension to existing wireless multimedia communications systems by enabling competing stations to proactively engage in the resource management game by adapting their cross-layer transmission strategies. For this, we model wireless stations (WSTAs) as rational and selfish players competing for available wireless resources in a dynamic game. We focus on polling-based wireless LAN (WLAN) networks, where developing an efficient solution for managing the available transmission opportunities is of paramount importance. The resource allocation game is coordinated by a network moderator, which deploys a novel resource management based on the Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) mechanism to determine a) the amount of time to be allocated to the various users and b) the transmission cost associated to the allocated resources. The transmission cost is referred to in the VCG mechanism as "transfer" and depends not on the used resources, but rather on the inconvenience (in terms of utility impact) that it causes to other WSTAs. The transfer is introduced in order to discourage WSTAs from lying about their resource requirements. Importantly, this proposed dynamic resource management approach for wireless multimedia applications changes the passive way stations are currently adapting their cross-layer strategies by enabling them to selfishly influence the wireless systems dynamics by proactively adapting their packet scheduling strategies, error protection strategies, etc. Hence, each wireless station can play the resource management game by adapting its multimedia transmission strategy depending on the experienced channel conditions, derived video quality, attitude towards risk, willingness to pay for resources and available information about the wireless network. Our simulations show that using the VCG mechanism the WSTAs do not have any incentives to lie about their resource requirements as otherwise they will be severely penalized by a high transfer. We also show that deploying advanced cross-layer strategies for playing the resource management game significantly benefit the WSTAs' received video quality. The willingness-to-pay for resources is introduced to provide WSTAs a tool to gather additional resources whenever they need to transmit an important (part of a) video sequence by agreeing to pay for resources an increased cost. A novel risk-aware scheduling scheme is also proposed that provides WSTAs the ability to dynamically avoid network congestion and hence, reduce their incurred transfer This paper studies a new design of a wireless-powered relay network to improve its throughput performance by opportunistic energy harvesting (EH) and information relaying (IR) at the relay node. To enable the relay to implement opportunistic EH and IR, a new protocol, namely, the adaptive harvest-store-forward (AHSF) protocol, is proposed. In the AHSF protocol, the relay is allowed to adaptively switch between an EH mode and a power-splitting (PS)-based IR mode at the beginning of each time frame; moreover, the relay can adaptively determine the amount of energy for IR based on the wireless channel conditions over one finite time horizon, which consists of multiple consecutive time frames. Then, under the proposed protocol, a throughput maximization problem is formulated to optimize the relay operation mode (i.e., EH mode or IR mode) and resource allocation (i.e., time slot, PS ratio, and power allocation) in the IR mode in a finite time horizon. The formulated problem is coupled over time and, thus, is intractable. To address the intractability, dynamic programming is employed to transform the problem into a series of Bellman equations. Based on the Bellman equations, the optimal decision criteria for the relay operation mode is derived, and a time-coupled optimization problem for the resource allocation in the IR mode is addressed by decoupling into two subproblems for two adjacent time frames. By solving the subproblems via convex programming, an optimization policy with causal channel-state information (CSI), which can be implemented online in real time, and an optimization policy with full CSI, which is used to reveal the upper bound of the achieved throughput, are achieved. The simulation results verify that the proposed design can yield significant throughput gains over the existing wireless-powered relaying schemes. In ad hoc networks, it may be helpful to suppress transmissions by nodes around the desired receiver in order to increase the likelihood of successful communication. This paper introduces the concept of a guard zone, defined as the region around each receiver where interfering transmissions are inhibited. Using stochastic geometry, the guard zone size that maximizes the transmission capacity for spread spectrum ad hoc networks is derived - narrowband transmission (spreading gain of unity) is a special case. A large guard zone naturally decreases the interference, but at the cost of inefficient spatial reuse. The derived results provide insight into the design of contention resolution algorithms by quantifying the optimal tradeoff between interference and spatial reuse in terms of the system parameters. A capacity increase relative to random access (ALOHA) in the range of 2 - 100 fold is demonstrated through an optimal guard zone; the capacity increase depending primarily on the required outage probability, as higher required QoS increasingly rewards scheduling. Compared to the ubiquitous carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) which essentially implements a guard zone around the transmitter rather than the receiver - we observe a capacity increase on the order of 30 - 100 Several works have established links between congestion control in communication networks and feedback control theory. In this paper, following this paradigm, the design of an AQM (active queue management) ensuring the stability of the congestion phenomenon at a router is proposed. To this end, a modified fluid flow model of TCP (transmission control protocol) that takes into account all delays of the topology is introduced. Then, appropriate tools from control theory are used to address the stability issue and to cope with the time-varying nature of the multiple delays. More precisely, the design of the AQM is formulated as a structured state feedback for multiple time delay systems through the quadratic separation framework. The objective of this mechanism is to ensure the regulation of the queue size of the congested router as well as flow rates to a prescribed level. Furthermore, the proposed methodology allows to set arbitrarily the QoS (quality of service) of the communications following through the controlled router. Finally, a numerical example and some simulations support the exposed theory. We study downlink beamforming in a single-cell network with a multi-antenna base station (BS) serving cache-enabled users. For a given common rate of the files in the system, we first formulate the minimum transmit power with beamforming at the BS as a non-convex optimization problem. This corresponds to a multiple multicast problem, to which a stationary solution can be efficiently obtained through successive convex approximation (SCA). It is observed that the complexity of the problem grows exponentially with the number of subfiles delivered to each user in each time slot, which itself grows exponentially with the number of users in the system. Therefore, we introduce a low-complexity alternative through time-sharing that limits the number of subfiles that can be received by a user in each time slot. It is shown through numerical simulations that, the reduced-complexity beamforming scheme has minimal performance gap compared to transmitting all the subfiles jointly, and outperforms the state-of-the-art low-complexity scheme at all SNR and rate values with sufficient spatial degrees of freedom, and in the high SNR high rate regime when the number of spatial degrees of freedom is limited. In this paper, we study resource allocation and relay selection in a decode-and-forward downlink OFDMA cooperative network assuming imperfect channel state information (CSI) at the base station (BS). We assume that due to feedback delay, the BS has only outdated CSI of BS to users and inter-user links. We propose a centralized optimization framework in which the BS takes decisions on the basis of available outdated CSI given the conditional probability distribution of the current CSI. We approach the problem by using dual optimization framework, decompose it into per-subcarrier optimization problem, and develop an optimal resource allocation and relay selection algorithm. The proposed algorithm minimizes the total transmit power of the system by jointly selecting the best relay node for each source-destination pair, and optimally allocating power and subcarriers to the source and relay nodes under constraints on users' conditional expected data rates. The duality gaps of the solution are virtually zero. Furthermore, we show that the per-subcarrier decomposition of the problem reduces the complexity of the solution from exponential to polynomial. Simulation results show that the system performance may be badly affected by feedback delay. Simulation results also show that users' cooperation significantly reduces the power consumption compared to non-cooperative communication. We discuss the relevance of fairness as a design objective for congestion control mechanisms in the Internet. Specifically, we consider a backbone network shared by a dynamic number of short-lived flows, and study the impact of bandwidth sharing on network performance. In particular, we prove that for a broad class of fair bandwidth allocations, the total number of flows in progress remains finite if the load of every link is less than one. We also show that provided the bandwidth allocation is "sufficiently" fair, performance is optimal in the sense that the throughput of the flows is mainly determined by their access rate. Neither property is guaranteed with unfair bandwidth allocations, when priority is given to one class of flow with respect to another. This suggests current proposals for a differentiated services Internet may lead to suboptimal utilization of network resources. The paper addresses the issue of providing Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees in the Internet. After a brief discussion of Internet traffic characteristics, we consider the possibility of performing multiplexing with predictable performance for stream and elastic traffic using open–loop and closed–loop control, respectively. QoS depends essentially on providing sufficient capacity to handle expected demand. We argue that flow awareness is additionally necessary to ensure that traffic is directed over routes with available capacity and to avoid congestion collapse in case of overload. Proposed flow–aware controls allow simple volume–based charging and the development of an economic model similar to that of the telephone network. The fair allocation of resources among different nodes is one of the critical problems in wireless mesh networks. Existing solutions mainly focus on rate-limitation policies or distributed fair MAC schemes at the potential expense of total network utilization. This paper investigates a special starvation problem among TCP flows that are different hops away from the BS, as well as its recently proposed solution, the ‘Minimum Content Window’ policy based on IEEE 802.11e. It is found that the aggregate throughput degrades sharply because the effect of this policy on the TCP congestion mechanism has been overlooked. This paper proposes a priority-based congestion control by using ‘Cross-Layer Explicit Congestion Notification’. Analysis and simulation results demonstrate that our scheme can improve the fairness of TCP flows while the aggregate throughput is at least 20 higher than the ‘Minimum Content Window’ policy. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.