This dissertation addresses the problem of channel assignment in multi-hop, multi-transceiver wireless networks. We investigate (1) how channels can be assigned throughout the network to ensure that the network is connected and (2) how the channel assignment can be adapted to suit the current traffic demands. We analyze a traffic-aware method for channel assignment that addresses both maintaining network connectivity and adapting the topology based on dynamic traffic demands. The traffic-aware approach has one component that assigns channels independently of traffic conditions and a second component that assigns channels in response to traffic conditions. The traffic-independent (TI) component is designed to allocate as few transceivers or radios as possible in order to maintain network connectivity, while limiting the aggregate interference induced by the topology. The traffic-driven (TD) component is then designed to maximize end-to-end flow rate using the resources remaining after the TI assignment is complete. By minimizing resources in the TI component, the TD component has more resources to adapt the topology to suit the traffic demands and support higher end-to-end flow rate. We investigate the fundamental tradeoff between how many resources are allocated to maintaining network connectivity versus how many resources are allocated to maximize flow rate. We show that the traffic-aware approach achieves an appropriately balanced resource allocation, maintaining a baseline network connectivity and adapting to achieve near the maximum theoretical flow rate in the scenarios evaluated. We develop a set of greedy, heuristic algorithms that address the problem of resource- minimized TI assignment, the first component of the traffic-aware assignment. We develop centralized and distributed schemes for nodes to assign channels to their transceivers. These schemes perform well as compared to the optimal approach in the evaluation. We show that both of these schemes perform within 2% of the optimum in terms of the maximum achievable flow rate. We develop a set of techniques for adapting the network's channel assignment based on traffic demands, the second component of the traffic-aware assignment. In our approach, nodes sense traffic conditions and adapt their own channel assignment independently to support a high flow rate and adapt when network demand changes. We demonstrate how our distributed TI and TD approaches complement each other in an event-driven simulation. / Ph. D.

Submitted by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2015-03-05T15:35:28Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Micael Oliveira Massula Carvalho de Mello - 2014.pdf: 489311 bytes, checksum: 15900b2c2d82201091cb1f73eeb459f4 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2015-03-06T10:37:11Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Micael Oliveira Massula Carvalho de Mello - 2014.pdf: 489311 bytes, checksum: 15900b2c2d82201091cb1f73eeb459f4 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-06T10:37:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Micael Oliveira Massula Carvalho de Mello - 2014.pdf: 489311 bytes, checksum: 15900b2c2d82201091cb1f73eeb459f4 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-12-19 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are infrastructures with autonomic properties, such as self-organization and self-recovery, which can be developed with widely available technologies and low cost solutions. Besides their current applications, such as community networks and broad-band Internet access, WMNs can offer contributions in the context of the Internet of Things and help to build robust infrastructures to smart energy networks, among other uses. However, WMNs usually have performance issues due to overload in certain parts of the network and interference in wireless links. In this context, it is important that solutions are used to promote load-balancing and to mitigate interference between wireless links. Research in this area shows that one of the most promising approaches are in the subject of the joint routing and channel assignment. However, most of the previous works depends on the knowledge of the network traffic and handle flows with low granularity. In this thesis, we handle the performance problem in WMNs, in particular those having multiple radios and multiple available channels, using a joint approach, but without the mentioned restrictions. Our proposal is a joint heuristic, whose main contribution is the routing, which pursues the compromise between load-balancing and the path length of the network flows. We have developed our proposal in the Network Simulator 3 (ns-3) and have compared it with other works in literature. We found that our heuristic provides throughput improvements in most of the analyzed scenarios, besides promote greater justice between the flows that compete for resources. / Redes em Malha Sem Fio - Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) são infraestruturas com propriedades autonômicas, como auto-organização e autorrecuperação, que podem ser implementadas com tecnologias amplamente disponíveis e de custo acessível. Além de suas aplicações atuais, como redes comunitárias e redes de acesso à Internet, as WMNs podem auxiliar na comunicação de Internet das Coisas e constituir infraestruturas robustas para redes inteligentes de energia, dentre outros usos. No entanto, WMNs geralmente apresentam questões relativas a desempenho devido a fatores como sobrecarga em determinadas partes da rede e interferências nos enlaces sem fio. Nesse contexto, é importante que sejam utilizadas soluções que promovam balanceamento de carga na rede e que minimizem as interferências entre os enlaces sem fio. A pesquisa nessa área tem mostrado que uma das abordagens mais promissoras consiste em tratar de maneira conjunta o roteamento e a atribuição de canais. Porém, a maior parte dos trabalhos dependem de conhecimento prévio do tráfego da rede e tratam fluxos com baixa granularidade. Nesta dissertação, tratamos o problema de desempenho em WMNs, em especial as que possuem múltiplos rádios e múltiplos canais disponíveis, utilizando uma abordagem conjunta, mas sem as restrições anteriores. Nossa proposta é uma heurística conjunta, cuja principal contribuição está no roteamento, o qual persegue um compromisso entre o balanceamento de carga e o comprimento dos caminhos seguidos pelos fluxos. Implementamos nossa proposta no Network Simulator 3 (ns-3) e a comparamos com outros trabalhos da literatura. Verificamos que nossa heurística apresenta ganhos de vazão na maior parte dos cenários avaliados, além de promover maior justiça entre os fluxos que concorrem pelos recursos.

The most studies on ad hoc network mainly focus on TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) of transport layer, the routing of network layer, multi-hop of Data-link layer, and the integration of WWAN and WLAN to increase the load balancing, coverage, and power savings. Nevertheless, in this dissertation, the system performances of four schemes proposed are improved with respect to data-link and network layers. One purpose of the data link layer is to perform error correction or detection. The other is responsible for the way in which different users share the transmission medium. The Medium Access Control (MAC) sublayer is responsible for allowing frames to be sent over the shared media without undue interference with other users. This aspect is referred to as multi-access communications. In the first and third schemes, the FDMA (Frequently-division multiple access) is employed to improve system performance, while in the fourth scheme the CDMA (Code-division multiple access) is used to enhance performance. Network layer has several functions, first is to determine the routing information. A second function is to determine the quality of service. A third function is flow control to avoid network to become congested. In the third scheme, the data-link and network layers have been used to increase system performance. Furthermore, the second scheme mainly concentrates on power savings under wireless sensor network. In ad hoc wireless networks, most data delivery is accomplished through multi-hop routing (hop by hop). This approach may leads to long delay and routing overhead regardless of which routing protocol is used. To overcome this inherent characteristic, this work presents a novel idea adopting dual-card-mode and performing self-organization process with specific IP naming and channel assignment to form a hierarchical star-graph ad hoc network (HSG-ad hoc) which can not only expedite the data transmission but also eliminate the route discovery procedure during data transmission. Therefore, the overall network reliability and stability can be significantly improved. Simulation results show that the proposed approach achieves substantial improvements in terms of average end-to-end delay, throughput, and packet delivery ratio. In a large-scale wireless sensor network, a topology is needed to gather state-based data from sensor network and efficiently aggregate the data given the requirements of balanced load, minimal energy consumption and prolonged network lifetime. In this study, we proposed a ring-based hierarchical clustering scheme (RHC) consisting of four phases: pre-deployment, parent-child relationship building, deployment, and member join phases. Two node types are distributed throughout the network: cluster head nodes (type 1 node) and general sensor nodes (type 2 node). The type 1 node has better battery life, software capability and hardware features than the type 2 node does; therefore, the type 1 node is a better cluster head than type 2 node. Most routing protocols focus mainly on obtaining a workable route without considering network traffic conditions for a mobile ad hoc network. Consequently, real time and multimedia applications do not achieve adequate quality of service (QoS). To support QoS, this work proposes a QoS-aware routing protocol, i.e. QUality of service with Admission control RouTing (QUART), that incorporates an admission control scheme into route discovery and route setup procedures. One variant of QUART, called, QUART-DD, adopts a dual-card dual-signal mechanism to increase system performance. Simulation results indicate that QUART-DD can significantly improve packet delivery ratio and throughput, while having a lower average end-to-end delay than routing protocols without QoS support. The performance of ad hoc wireless network suffers from problems in multi-hop transmission. This study adopts code division to modulate the frame header and the frame payload separately. A common spreading code modulates the frame header, and a special spreading code is negotiated and to modulate the frame payload. A field in the frame header indicates the spreading code used to modulate the successive frame payload. The modulated frame is transparent for every node, enabling many frames to be transmitted simultaneously. To allow the special spreading code negotiation, the RTS/CTS command is modified as ERTS/ECTS, and a spreading code table (SCT) is maintained in every node. Due to the space reuse, the proposed scheme has superior performance in latency and bandwidth utilization, as revealed by the simulation results.

A wireless channel is shared by all devices, in the vicinity, that are tuned to the channel, and at any given time, only one of the devices can transmit information. One way to overcome this limitation, in throughput capacity, is to use multiple orthogonal channels for different devices, that want to transmit information at the same time. In this work, we consider the use of multiple orthogonal channels in wireless data networks. We explore algorithms and protocols for such multi-channel wireless networks under two broad categories of network-wide and link-level challenges. Towards handling the network-wide issues, we consider the channel assignment and routing issues in multi-channel wireless networks. We study both single radio and multi-radio multi-channel networks. For single radio multi-channel networks, we propose a new granularity for channel assignment, that we refer to as component level channel assignment. The strategy is relatively simple, and is characterized by several impressive practical advantages. For multi-radio multi-channel networks, we propose a joint routing and channel assignment protocol, known as Lattice Routing. The protocol manages channels of the radios, for the different nodes in the network, using information about current channel conditions, and adapts itself to varying traffic patterns, in order to efficiently use the multiple channels. Through ns2 based simulations, we show how both the protocols outperform other existing protocols for multi-channel networks under different network environments. Towards handling the link-level challenges, we identify the practical challenges in achieving a high data-rate wireless link across two devices using multiple off-the-shelf wireless radios. Given that the IEEE 802.11 a/g standards define 3 orthogonal wi-fi channels in the 2.4GHz band and 12 orthogonal wi-fi channels in the 5GHz band, we answer the following question: ``can a pair of devices each equipped with 15 wi-fi radios use all the available orthogonal channels to achieve a high data-rate link operating at 600Mbps?' Surprisingly, we find through experimental evaluation that the actual observed performance when using all fifteen orthogonal channels between two devices is a mere 91Mbps. We identify the reasons behind the low performance and present Glia, a software only solution that effectively exercises all available radios. We prototype Glia and show using experimental evaluations that Glia helps achieve close to 600Mbps data-rate when using all possible wi-fi channels.

Due to its ability to deliver scalable and fault-tolerant solutions, applications based on the peer-to-peer (P2P) paradigm are used by millions of users on the internet. Recently, wireless mesh networks (WMNs) have attracted a lot of interest from both academia and industry, because of their potential to provide flexible and alternative broadband wireless internet connectivity. However, due to various reasons such as unstable wireless link characteristics and multi-hop forwarding operation, the performance of current P2P systems is rather low in WMNs. This dissertation studies the technological challenges involved while deploying P2P systems over WMNs. We study the benefits of location-awareness and resource replication to the P2P overlay while targeting efficient resource lookup in WMNs. We further propose a cross-layer information exchange between the P2P overlay and the WMN in order to reduce resource lookup delay by augmenting the overlay routing table with physical neighborhood and resource lookup history information. Aiming to achieve throughput maximization and fairness in P2P systems, we model the peer selection problem as a mathematical optimization problem by using a set of mixed integer linear equations. A study of the model reveals the relationship between peer selection, resource replication and channel assignment on the performance of P2P systems over WMNs. We extend the model by formulating the P2P download problem as chunk scheduling problem. As a novelty, we introduce constraints to model the capacity limitations of the network due to the given routing and channel assignment strategy. Based on the analysis of the model, we propose a new peer selection algorithm which incorporates network load information and multi-path routing capability. By conducting testbed experiments, we evaluate the achievable throughput in multi-channel multi-radio WMNs. We show that the adjacent channel interference (ACI) problem in multi-radio systems can be mitigated, making better use of the available spectrum. Important lessons learned are also outlined in order to design practical channel and channel bandwidth assignment algorithms in multi-channel multi-radio WMNs.

[pt] Este trabalho investiga o comportamento de métodos de alocação de canais para Sistemas Móveis Celulares quando associados ao uso de canais de guarda para priorizar chamadas que estejam em handoff. O objetivo desta associação é uma maior qualidade da ligação comparada à obtida quando não se faz uso dessa técnica. Resultados de simulações mostram que este objetivo pode ser atingido. / [en] This work investigates the behavior of channel allocation schemes for Mobile Cellular Systems, when associated with channel guards giving priority to calls that are in handoff procedure. The objective of this association is a better call quality compared to the one in which this technique is not used. Simulation results show that indeed this can be achieved.

Les Réseaux de Capteurs Sans Fils (RCSFs) ont pris beaucoup d'importance dans plusieurs domaines tels que l'industrie, l'armée, la pollution atmosphérique etc. Les capteurs sont alimentés par des batteries qui ne sont pas faciles à remplacer surtout dans les environnements peu accessibles. L'énergie de chaque capteur est considérée comme la source première d'augmentation de la durée de vie des RCSFs. Puisque la transmission de données est plus coûteuse en consommation d'énergie, notre préoccupation première est de proposer une technique efficace de transmission des données de tous les capteurs vers le sink tout en réduisant la consommation en énergie. Nous suggérons trois trois algorithmes d'agrégation de données basé sur la construction d'arbres : Depth-First Search Aggregation (DFSA), Flooding Aggregation (FA) et Well-Connected Dominating Set Aggregation (WCDSA) qui permettront de réduire le nombre de transmissions de chaque capteur vers le sink. L'agrégation des données basée sur la construction d'arbres souffre du délai de délivrance de données parce que les parents doivent attendre de recevoir les données de leurs feuilles. Certains parents pourraient avoir beaucoup de feuilles, et il serait alors assez coûteux pour un parent de stocker toutes les données entrantes dans sa mémoire. Ainsi, nous devons déterminer le temps que chaque parent doit mettre pour agréger et traiter les données de ses feuilles. Nous proposons un algorithme, Efficient Tree-based Aggregation and Processing Time (ETAPT) qui utilise la métrique Appropriate Data Aggregation and Processing Time (ADAPT). Etant donné la durée maximale acceptable, l'algorithme ETAPT prend en compte la position des parents, le nombre de feuilles et la profondeur de l'arbre pour calculer l'ADAPT optimal. A n'importe quel moment pendant l'agrégation des données par les parents, il peut arriver que la quantité de données collectées soit très grande et dépasse la quantité de stockage maximale de données que peut contenir leurs mémoires. Nous proposons l'introduction dans le réseau de plusieurs collecteurs de données appelés Mini-Sinks (MSs). Ces MSs sont mobiles et se déplacent selon un modèle de mobilité aléatoire dans le réseau pour maintenir la connexité afin d'assurer la collecte contrôlée des données basée sur le protocole de routage Mulipath Energy Conserving Routing Protocol (MECRP). Les capteurs peuvent être équipés de plusieurs interfaces radios partageant un seul canal sans fil avec lequel ils peuvent communiquer avec plusieurs voisins. La transmission des données à travers une liaison de communication entre deux parents peut interférer avec les transmissions d'autres liaisons si elles transmettent à travers le même canal. Nous avons besoin de savoir quel canal utiliser en présence de plusieurs canaux pour une transmission donnée. Nous proposons une méthode distribuée appelée: Well Connected Dominating Set Channel Assignement (WCDS-CA), pour calculer le nombre de canaux qui seront alloués à tous les capteurs de telle sorte que les capteurs adjacents se voient attribués des canaux différents / Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have gained much attention in a large range of technical fields such as industrial, military, environmental monitoring etc. Sensors are powered by batteries, which are not easy to replace in harsh environments. The energy stored by each sensor is the greatest impediment for increasing WSN lifetime. Since data transmission consumes more energy, our major concern is how to efficiently transmit the data from all sensors towards a sink. We suggest three tree-based data aggregation algorithms: Depth-First Search Aggregation (DFSA), Flooding Aggregation (FA) and Well-Connected Dominating Set Aggregation (WCDSA) to reduce the number of transmissions from each sensor towards the sink. Tree-based data aggregation suffers from increased data delivery time because the parents must wait for the data from their leaves. Some parents might have many leaves, making it very expensive for a parent to store all incoming data in its buffer. We need to determine the aggregation time each parent in the tree has to spend in aggregating and processing the data from its leaves. We propose an Efficient Tree-based Aggregation and Processing Time (ETAPT) algorithm using Appropriate Data Aggregation and Processing Time (ADAPT) metric. Given the maximum acceptable latency, ETAPT's algorithm takes into account the position of parents, their number of leaves and the depth of the tree, in order to compute an optimal ADAPT time. At any time, the amount of data aggregated by parents may become greater than the amount of data that can be forwarded. We propose the introduction into the network of many data aggregators called Mini-Sinks (MSs). MSs are mobile and move according to a random mobility model inside the sensor field to maintain the fully-connected network in order to aggregate the data based on the controlled Multipath Energy Conserving Routing Protocol (MECRP). Sensors may use many radio interfaces sharing a single wireless channel, which they may use to communicate with several neighbours. Two sensors operating on the same wireless channel may interfere with each other during the transmission of data. We need to know which channel to use in the presence of multiple channels for a given transmission. We propose a distributed Well-Connected Dominating Set Channel Assignment (WCDS-CA) approach, in which the number of channels that are needed over all sensor nodes in the network in such a way that adjacent sensor nodes are assigned to distinct channels.

No description available.

Despite recent advances in wireless local area network (WLAN) technologies, today's WLANs still cannot offer the same data rates as their wired counterparts. The throughput problem is further aggravated in multi-hop wireless environments due to collisions and interference caused by multi-hop routing. Because all current IEEE 802.11 physical (PHY) standards divide the available frequency into several orthogonal channels, which can be used simultaneously within a neighborhood, increasing capacity by exploiting multiple channels becomes particularly appealing. To improve the capacity of wireless ad hoc networks by exploiting multiple available channels, I propose three principles that facilitate the design of efficient distributed channel assignment protocols. Distributed channel assignment problems have been proven to be <i>NP</i>-complete and, thus, computationally intractable. Though being a subject of many years of research, distributed channel assignment remains a challenging problem. There exist only a few heuristic solutions, none of which is efficient, especially for the mobile ad hoc environment. However, protocols that implement the proposed design principles are shown to require fewer channels and exhibit significantly lower communication, computation, and storage complexity, compared with existing approaches. As examples, I present two such protocols that build on standard reactive and proactive routing protocols. In addition, I prove the correctness of the algorithms and derive an upper bound on the number of channels required to both resolve collisions and mitigate interference. A new multi-channel medium access control (MC-MAC) protocol is also proposed for multi-hop wireless ad hoc networks. MC-MAC is compatible with the IEEE 802.11 medium access control (MAC) standard and imposes the minimum system requirements among all existing multi-channel MAC protocols. In addition, simulation results show that even with only a single half-duplex transceiver, MC-MAC, by exploiting multiple channels, can offer up to a factor of four improvement in throughput over the IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol. The reduction in delay is even more significant. Therefore, the MC-MAC protocol and the accompanying distributed channel assignment protocols constitute an effective solution to the aforementioned performance problem in a multi-hop wireless network. Finally, I generalize the cross-layer design principle to more general networking functions and present a network architecture to motivate and facilitate cross-layer designs in wireless networks. A literature survey is provided to validate the proposed cross-layer design architecture. Current cross-layer design research can be categorized into two classes: joint-layer design using optimization techniques, and adaptive techniques based on system-profile and/or QoS requirements. Joint-layer design based on optimization techniques can achieve optimal performance, but at the expense of complexity. Adaptive schemes may achieve relatively good performance with less complexity. Nevertheless, without careful design and a holistic view of the network architecture, adaptive schemes may actually cause more damage than benefit. / Ph. D.

Cognitive radio (CR) is seen as one of the enabling technologies for realizing a new regulatory spectrum management paradigm, viz. opportunistic spectrum sharing (OSS). In the OSS paradigm, unlicensed users (a.k.a. secondary users) opportunistically operate in fallow licensed spectrum on a non-interference basis to licensed users (a.k.a. incumbent or primary users). Incumbent users have absolute priority in licensed bands, and secondary users must vacate the channel where incumbent user signals are detected. A CR network is composed of secondary users equipped with CRs and it can coexist with incumbent users in licensed bands under the OSS paradigm. The coexistence between incumbent users and secondary users is referred to as incumbent coexistence, and the coexistence between CR networks of the same type is referred to as self-coexistence. In this dissertation, we address three coexistence-related problems at the medium access control (MAC) layer in CR networks: (1) the rendezvous (control channel) establishment problem, (2) the channel assignment problem in an ad hoc CR network, and (3) the spectrum sharing problem between infrastructure-based CR networks, i.e., the 802.22 wireless regional area networks (WRANs). Existing MAC layer protocols in conventional wireless networks fail to adequately address the key issues concerning incumbent and self coexistence that emerge in CR networks. To solve the rendezvous establishment problem, we present a systematic approach, based on quorum systems, for designing channel hopping protocols that ensure a pair of CRs to "rendezvous" within an upper-bounded time over a common channel that is free of incumbent user signals. In a single radio interface, ad hoc CR network, we propose a distributed channel assignment scheme that assigns channels at the granularity of "segments" for minimizing the channel switching overhead. By taking into account the coexistence requirements, we propose an inter-network spectrum sharing protocol that enables the sharing of vacant TV white space among coexisting WRANs. Our analytical and simulation results show that these proposed schemes can effectively address the aforementioned MAC layer coexistence problems in CR networks. / Ph. D.