With the emergence of various applications that have different Quality of Service (QoS) requirements, the capability of a network to support QoS becomes more and more important and necessary. This dissertation explores QoS in Cognitive Packet Networks (CPN) by using adaptive routing, flow and congestion control. We present a detailed description and analysis of our proposed routing algorithms based on single and multiple QoS constraints. An online estimation of packet loss rate over a path is introduced. We implement and evaluate the adaptive routing scheme in an experimental CPN test-bed. Our experiments support our claims that the users can achieve their desired best-effort QoS through this routing scheme. We also propose a QoS-based flow and congestion control scheme that is built in the transport layer and specially designed to work with CPN to support users' QoS while remaining friendly to TCP. Theoretical models and experimental analysis are presented. Finally we experimentally demonstrate that the proposed flow and congestion control scheme can effectively control the input flows, react to the congestion and work with our proposed adaptive routing scheme to achieve users' QoS.

No description available.

Access to the large web content hosted all over the world by users of the Internet engage many hosts, routers/switches and faster links. They challenge the internet backbone to operate at its capacity to assure e±cient content access. This may result in congestion and raises concerns over various Quality of Service (QoS) issues like high delays, high packet loss and low throughput of the system for various Internet applications. Thus, there is a need to develop effective congestion control mechanisms in order to meet various Quality of Service (QoS) related performance parameters. In this paper, our emphasis is on the Active Queue Management (AQM) mechanisms, particularly Random Early Detection (RED). We propose a threshold based novel analytical model based on standard RED mechanism. Various numerical examples are presented for Internet traffic scenarios containing both the burstiness and correlation properties of the network traffic.

No description available.

Reliable and efficient data transfer on the Internet is an important issue. Since late 70's the protocol responsible for that has been the de facto standard TCP, which has proven to be successful through out the years, its self-managed congestion control algorithms have retained the stability of the Internet for decades. However, the variety of existing new technologies such as high-speed networks (e.g. fibre optics) with high-speed long-delay set-up (e.g. cross-Atlantic links) and wireless technologies have posed lots of challenges to TCP congestion control algorithms. The congestion control research community proposed solutions to most of these challenges. This dissertation adds to the existing work by: firstly tackling the highspeed long-delay problem of TCP, we propose enhancements to one of the existing TCP variants (part of Linux kernel stack). We then propose our own variant: TCP-Gentle. Secondly, tackling the challenge of differentiating the wireless loss from congestive loss in a passive way and we propose a novel loss differentiation algorithm which quantifies the noise in packet inter arrival times and use this information together with the span (ratio of maximum to minimum packet inter arrival times) to adapt the multiplicative decrease factor according to a predefined logical formula. Finally, extending the well-known drift model of TCP to account for wireless loss and some hypothetical cases (e.g. variable multiplicative decrease), we have undertaken stability analysis for the new version of the model.

In this thesis, we develop scalable frameworks to (re)design a class of large-scale network systems with built-in control mechanisms, including electric power systems and the Internet, in order to improve their economic efficiency and performance while guaranteeing their stability and robustness. After a detailed introduction relating to power system control and optimization, as well as network congestion control, we turn our attention to merging primary and secondary frequency control for the power grid. We present modifications in the conventional generation control using a consensus design approach while considering the participation of controllable loads. The optimality, stability and delay robustness of the redesigned system are studied. Moreover, we extend the proposed control scheme to (i) networks with more complexity and (ii) the case where controllable loads are involved in the optimization. As a result, our controllers can balance power flow and drive the system to an economically optimal operating point in the steady state. We then study a real-time control framework that merges primary, secondary and tertiary frequency control in power systems. In particular, we consider a transmission level network with tree topology. A distributed dynamic feedback controller is designed via a primal-dual decomposition approach and the stability of the overall system is studied. In addition, we introduce extra dynamics to improve system performance and emphasize the trade-off when choosing the gains of the extra dynamics. As a result, the proposed controller can balance supply and demand in the presence of disturbances, and achieve optimal power flow in the steady state. Furthermore, after introducing the extra dynamics, the transient performance of the system significantly improves. A redesign framework for network congestion control is developed next. Motivated by the augmented Lagrangian method, we introduce extra terms to the Lagrangian, which is used to redesign the primal-dual, primal and dual algorithms. We investigate how the gains resulting from the extra dynamics influence the stability and robustness of the system. Moreover, we show that the overall system can achieve added robustness to communication delays by appropriately tuning these gains. Also, the meaning of these extra dynamics is investigated and a distributed proportional-integral-derivative controller for solving network congestion control problems is further developed. Finally, we concentrate on a reverse- and forward-engineering framework for distributed control of a class of linear network systems to achieve optimal steady-state performance. As a typical illustration, we use the proposed framework to solve the real-time economic dispatch problem in the power grid. On the other hand, we provide a general procedure to modify control schemes for a special class of dynamic systems. In order to investigate how general the reverse- and forward-engineering framework is, we develop necessary and sufficient conditions under which an linear time-invariant system can be reverse-engineered as a gradient algorithm to solve an optimization problem. These conditions are characterized using properties of system matrices and relevant linear matrix inequalities. We conclude this thesis with an account for future research.

Nous examinons la possibilité de déployer un service Lower-than-Best-Effort(LBE)sur des liens à long délai tels que des liens satellites. L'objectif estde fournir une deuxième classe de priorité dédiée à un trafic en tâche defond ou un trafic de signalisation. Dans le contexte des liens à long délai, unservice LBE peut aider à optimiser l'utilisation de la capacité du lien. Enoutre, un service de LBE peut permettre un accès à Internet à faible coût oumême gratuit dans les collectivités éloignées via la communication parsatellite. Il existe deux niveaux de déploiement possible d'une approche de LBE: soit àla couche MAC ou soità la couche de transport. Dans cette thèse, nous nousintéressons à une approche de bout-en-bout et donc nous nousconcentrons spécifiquement sur les solutions de la couche transport. Nousproposons tout d'abord d'étudier LEDBAT (Low Extra Delay BackgroundTransport)en raison de son potentiel. En effet, LEDBAT a été normalisé parl'IETF et est largement déployé dans le client BitTorrent officiel.Malheureusement, le réglage des paramètres de LEDBAT dépend fortement desconditions du réseau. Dans le pire des cas, les flux LEDBAT peuvent prendretoute la bande passante d'autre trafic tels que le trafic commercial sur lelien satellite. LEDBAT souffre également d'un problème intra-inéquité, appelélatecomer advantage. Toutes ces raisons empêchent souvent les opérateursde permettre l'utilisation de ce protocole sur le lien sans fil et à longdélai puisqu'une mauvaise configuration peut surcharger la capacité du lien.Pour répondre à l'ensemble de ces problèmes, nous proposons FLOWER, un nouveauprotocole de transport, qui se positionne comme alternative à LEDBAT. Enutilisant un contrôleur de logique floue pour réguler le débit des données,FLOWER vise à résoudre les problèmes de LEDBAT tout en remplissant le rôle d'unprotocole de LBE. Dans cette thèse, nous montrons que FLOWER peut transporter letrafic deLBE non seulement dans le contexte à long délai, mais dansplusieurs conditions du réseau où LEDBAT se trouve en échec. / In this thesis, we look at the possibility to deploy a Lower-than-Best-Effort(LBE) service over long delay links such as satellite links. The objective isto provide a second priority class dedicated to background or signalingtraffic. In the context of long delay links, an LBE service might also help tooptimize the use of the link capacity. In addition, an LBE service can enablea low-cost or even free Internet access in remote communities via satellitecommunication. There exists two possible deployment level of an LBE approach: either at MAClayer or at transport layer. In this thesis, we are interested in anend-to-end approach and thusspecifically focus on the transport layersolutions. We first propose to study LEDBAT (Low Extra Delay BackgroundTransport) because of its potential. Indeed, LEDBAT has been standardized byIETF and is widely deployed within the official BitTorrent client.Unfortunately, the tuning of LEDBAT parameters is revealed to highly depend onthe network conditions. In the worst case scenario, LEDBAT flows can starveother traffic such as commercial traffic performing over a satellite link.LEDBAT also suffers from an intra-unfairness issue, called the latecomeradvantage. All these reasons often prevent operators to allow the use of suchprotocol over wireless and long-delay link as a misconfiguration can overloadthe link capacity. Therefore, we design FLOWER, a new delay-based transportprotocol, as an alternative to LEDBAT. By using a fuzzy controller to modulatethe sending rate, FLOWER aims to solve LEDBAT issues while fulfilling the roleof an LBE protocol. Our simulation results show that FLOWER can carry LBEtraffic not only in the long delay context, but in a wide range of networkconditions where LEDBAT usually fails.

nÃo hà / O crescimento do nÃmero dos usuÃrios do serviÃo de Voice over IP(VoIP) faz dele o serviÃo com o maior interesse de ser provido por operadoras de telefonia celular. Por outro lado, este demanda um controle de Quality of Service (QoS) bastante rÃgido, o que torna-se mais complicado em redes sem fio, porque alÃm de congestionamentos na rede, os pacotes podem ser perdidos devido à erros nas transmissÃes no enlace de rÃdio. Dentro deste paradigma, estratÃgias de controle de congestionamento aparecem como uma boa soluÃÃo para lidar com as garantias de QoS em situaÃÃes de sobrecarga do sistema, onde os recursos se encontram exauridos e os requerimentos de qualidade se encontram ameaÃados. Este trabalho consiste na avaliaÃÃo de algoritmos de controle de congestionamento objetivando um aumento de capacidade e das garantias de QoS para serviÃos de voz. Os algoritmos avaliados neste trabalho sÃo os escalonamentos de pacotes e os controles de admissÃo. A anÃlise em cenÃrios de serviÃos mistos composto por usuÃrios VoIP e Web tambÃm està contida neste trabalho. O maior foco està no controle do atraso de pacote, jà que este à um requerimento crucial para serviÃos de tempo-real, como o VoIP. Os resultados mostram que um arcabouÃo de controle de congestionamento projetado para este serviÃo à capaz de melhorar o desempenho do sistema e mitigar os efeitos de congestionamento da rede. No cenÃrio de serviÃos mistos, os algoritmos sÃo capazes de efetuar reserva de recursos dependendo da prioridade definida para cada serviÃo, levando a um aumento na qualidade percebida pelo serviÃo mais sensÃvel atravÃs de uma leve degradaÃÃo no serviÃo mais robusto. / The growth in the number of Voice over IP(VoIP) users on the internet makes it the service with the highest interest to be provided by cellular operators. On the other hand, it demands very strict Quality of Service (QoS) control, which becomes even more complicated in wireless networks, because packets can be lost due to radio link transmission erros, as well as networks congestion. Within this paradigm, congestion control strategies appear as a good solution to cope with QoS guarantees under high loads, where the resources are exhausted and the service quality is threatened. This works comprises the evaluation of congestion control algorithms aiming to improve system capacity and QoS guarantees for speech users. The evaluated alagorithms within this work are packet scheduling and admission control. The analysys in mixed services scenarios composed of VoIP and Web users is also provid in this works. The main focus of the framework is to control the packet delay, since it is a crucial requirement for real-time services. The results show thata suitable congestion control framework is able to provid perfomace improvements and mitigation of the the effects from overloaded conditions. In the mixed services scenario, the algorithms are capable to perform resource reservation depending on the priority defined to each service, leanding to an increase in the quality of more sensitive service by degrading the more robust service

In recent years, Internet and IP technologies have made inroads into almost every communication market ranging from best-effort services such as email and Web, to soft real-time applications such as VoIP, IPTV, and video. However, providing a transport service over IP that meets the timeliness and availability requirements of soft real-time applications has turned out to be a complex task. Although network solutions such as IntServ, DiffServ, MPLS, and VRRP have been suggested, these solutions many times fail to provide a transport service for soft real-time applications end to end. Additionally, they have so far only been modestly deployed. In light of this, this thesis considers transport protocols for soft real-time applications. Part I of the thesis focuses on the design and analysis of transport protocols for soft real-time multimedia applications with lax deadlines such as image-intensive Web applications. Many of these applications do not need a completely reliable transport service, and to this end Part I studies so-called partially reliable transport protocols, i.e., transport protocols that enable applications to explicitly trade reliability for improved timeliness. Specifically, Part I investigates the feasibility of designing retransmission-based, partially reliable transport protocols that are congestion aware and fair to competing traffic. Two transport protocols are presented in Part I, PRTP and PRTP-ECN, which are both extensions to TCP for partial reliability. Simulations and theoretical analysis suggest that these transport protocols could give a substantial improvement in throughput and jitter as compared to TCP. Additionally, the simulations indicate that PRTP-ECN is TCP friendly and fair against competing congestion-aware traffic such as TCP flows. Part I also presents a taxonomy for retransmission-based, partially reliable transport protocols. Part II of the thesis considers the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP), which was developed by the IETF to transfer telephony signaling traffic over IP. The main focus of Part II is on evaluating the SCTP failover mechanism. Through extensive experiments, it is suggested that in order to meet the availability requirements of telephony signaling, SCTP has to be configured much more aggressively than is currently recommended by IETF. Furthermore, ways to improve the transport service provided by SCTP, especially with regards to the failover mechanism, are suggested. Part II also studies the effects of Head-of-Line Blocking (HoLB) on SCTP transmission delays. HoLB occurs when packets in one flow block packets in another, independent, flow. The study suggests that the short-term effects of HoLB could be substantial, but that the long-term effects are marginal.

Las redes inal´ambricas actuales exhiben caracter´ısticas heterog´eneas de acceso m´ultiple mediante el despliegue, la coexistencia y la cooperaci´on de varias Tecnolog ´ıas de Acceso Radio (RAT2). En este escenario, la prestaci´on de servicios multimedia garantizando una cierta calidad de servicio (QoS3) es obligatoria. El objetivo global de las redes heterog´eneas de acceso inal´ambrico consiste en sustentar la realizaci´on del concepto ABC (del ingl´es Always Best Connected), en el que un usuario est´a siempre conectado a la RAT que mejor satisface sus necesidades de servicio en cualquier momento, en cualquier lugar, de cualquier modo. En este sentido, las estrat´egias de gesti´on de recursos radio comunes [del ingl´es, Common Radio Resource Management (CRRM)] se dise˜nan para proporcionar una utilizaci´on eficiente de los recursos radio y de espectro radioel´ectrico dentro de la red heterog´enea, ofreciendo un mejor rendimiento en comparaci´on con la realizaci´on independiente de RRM en cada RAT. Adem´as, los recursos de espectro asignados a cada una de las RATs deben ser utilizado de manera eficiente, ya que se trata de un recurso escaso y costoso. En este sentido, conceptos y metodolog´ıas de radio cognitiva (del ingl´es Cognitive Radio o CR) se han aplicado a la gesti´on del espectro, permitiendo una compartici´on dinamico-oportunista del mismo. En estos casos, el espectro sujeto a licencia se abre hacia el acceso de usuarios sin licencia siempre que no perjudiquen y que el funcionamiento libre de interferencias est´e garantizado. Esta tesis analiza estrategias de gesti´on de recursos radio y de espectro para ofrecer un uso mayor y eficiente de los escasos recursos radio y de espectro con el objetivo final de aumentar al m´aximo la capacidad de usuario, garantizando los requerimientos de QoS. En concreto, estas tesis se centra primero en como seleccionar una RAT al inicio de una llamada/sesi´on (en adelante, selecci´on inicial de RAT) en una red de acceso heterog´enea. Un modelo de Markov ha sido desarrollado para definir la asignaci´on de m´ultiples servicios (multi-servicio) en m´ultiples RATs (multi-acceso). En este marco, varias pol´ıticas de selecci´on de RAT son propuestas y evaluadas, gen´ericamente clasific´andose en pol´ıticas basadas en servicio (SB4) y basadas en balanceo de carga (LB5). Adem´as, el rendimiento de las pol´ıticas de selecci´on de RATs en escenarios de acceso limitado debido a la deficiente cobertura radio, la falta de disponibilidad de terminales multi-modo y la incompatibilidad entre RAT y servicios tambi´en es evaluada. Principios espec´ıficos para la asignaci´on de servicios a RATs ser´an provistos en los escenarios antes mencionados con el objetivo general de aumentar la capacidad de usuarios, garantizando los requisitos m´ınimos de calidad de servicio. Finalmente, la congesti´on en el acceso radio tambi´en se trata en este escenario multi-acceso/multi-servicio y el impacto de la selecci´on de RAT evaluado. Los principios para la asignaci´on inicial de RAT con tal de evitar la congesti´on radio ser´an tambi´en proporcionados. En segundo lugar, esta tesis investiga sobre la forma de maximizar el uso eficiente del espectro sujeto a licencia (o licenciado) por medio del acceso din´amicooportunista de espectro a usuarios sin licencia. En este sentido, se concibe un modelo de Markov para captar el problema del uso compartido de espectro entre usuarios con y sin licencia. Un modelo basado en sensado de espectro se propone con el fin de detectar porciones de espectro no utilizados (en ingl´es white spaces) que pueden ser usados por los usuarios sin licencia mientras este siga libre. En este marco, los beneficios obtenidos de la compartici´on del espectro son investigados y las ventajas que implican evaluadas. En concreto, se eval´ua el rendimiento obtenido al ajustar el punto de funcionamiento (en ingl´es operating point ) del mecanismo de sensado, el cual determina los errores de no-detecci´on y falsa-alarma. Por otra parte, sistemas de canalizaci´on de espectro fijos versus adaptativos ser´an propuestos y analizados bajo dos disciplinas de servicio diferentes, cuya duraci´on (o tiempo de permanencia en el sistema) esta basada en tiempo y en contenido respectivamente. / Current wireless networks exhibit heterogeneous multi-access features by means of the coexisting and cooperative deployment of several Radio Access Technologies (RATs). In this scenario, the provision of multimedia services with ensured Quality of Service (QoS) is mandatory. The overall goal of heterogeneous wireless access networks is to enable the realization of the Always Best Connected concept in which a user is seamlessly connected to the RAT best suiting its service requirements anytime, anywhere, anyhow. In this sense, Common Radio Resource Management (CRRM) strategies are devoted to provide an efficient utilization of radio resources within the heterogeneous network offering improved performances as opposed to performing stand-alone RRM in each RAT. In addition, allocated spectrum resources to each RAT must be efficiently utilized since it is a scarce and expensive resource. In this respect, cognitive radio concepts and methodologies have been applied to spectrum management by enabling dynamic/opportunistic spectrum sharing. In these scenarios, licensed spectrum is opened towards unlicensed access provided a non-harmful operation is guaranteed. This dissertation discusses both radio resource and spectrum management strategies to provide an utmost and efficient use of scarce radio/spectrum resources with the overall goal of maximizing user capacity while guaranteeing QoS constraints.Specifically, the thesis is first focused on how to select an appropriate RAT upon call/session initiation (henceforth, initial RAT selection) in a heterogeneous access network. A Markovian framework is developed to such extent supporting the allocation of multiple service-type users (multi-service) on multiple RATs (multi-access). Under this framework, several RAT selection policies are proposed and evaluated, broadly categorized into service-based (SB) and load-balancing (LB). In addition, the performance of RAT selection policies in access-limited scenarios due to poor radio coverage, non multi-mode terminal availability and RAT-service incompatibility is also evaluated. Specific guiding principles for the allocation of services on several RATs are provided in the abovementioned scenarios with the overall goal of increasing user capacity while guaranteeing minimum QoS requirements. Finally, radio access congestion is also addressed in this multi-access/multi-service scenario and the impact RAT selection assessed. Suitable allocation principles avoiding congestion are also provided.Secondly, this dissertation investigates on how to efficiently maximize the use of licensed spectrum by means of dynamic/opportunistic unlicensed spectrum access. Hereof, a Markovian framework is also devised to capture the problem of licensed spectrum sharing towards unlicensed users. A sensing-based spectrum awareness model is proposed in order to detect unused spectrum (so-called white spaces) which may be accessed by unlicensed users while remaining unused. Under this framework, the benefits of spectrum sharing are investigated and the involved gains assessed. Specifically, the sensing-throughput tradeoff and the adjustment of the sensing mechanism’s operating point, which tradeoffs missed-detection and false-alarm errors, is evaluated. Moreover, fixed vs. adaptive spectrum channelization schemes are proposed and analyzed under two different service disciplines considering time-based and volume-based content delivery.