With the progression of computer networks extending boundaries and joining distant locations, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) emerge as the new frontier in developing opportunities to collect and process data from remote locations. WSNs rely on hardware simplicity to make sensor field deployments both affordable and long-lasting without maintenance support. WSN designers strive to extend network lifetimes while meeting application-specific throughput and latency requirements. Effective power management places sensor nodes into one of the available energy-saving modes based upon the sleep period duration and the current state of the radio. This research investigates energy-efficient medium access control (MAC) protocols designed to extend both the lifetime and range of wireless sensor networks. These networks are deployed in remote locations with limited processor capabilities, memory capacities, and battery supplies. The purpose of this research is to develop a new medium access control protocol which performs both cluster management and inter-network gateway functions in an energy-efficient manner. This new protocol, Gateway MAC (GMAC), improves on existing sensor MAC protocols by not only creating additional opportunities to place the sensor platforms into lower power-saving modes, but also by establishing a traffic rhythm which extends the sleep duration to minimize power mode transition costs. Additionally, this research develops a radio power management (RPM) algorithm to provide a new mechanism for all WSN MAC protocols to optimize sleep transition decisions based upon the power and response characteristics of the sensor platform's transceiver. Finally, to extend access to sensor data in remote locations, this research also validates an innovative wireless distribution system which integrates wireless sensor networks, mobile ad hoc networks (MANET), and the Internet. This research makes two significant contributions to the state-of-the-art wireless sensor networks. First, GMAC's centralized network management function offers significant energy savings and network lifetime extensions over existing wireless sensor network protocols. The second contribution is the introduction of a wireless sensor radio power management algorithm designed to exploit additional power-saving opportunities introduced with the newest generation of faster sensor platform transceivers. / Ph. D.

IEEE 802.11n Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) employ Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO), which significantly boosts the raw data rate at the Physical layer (PHY). But the potential of enhancing Medium Access Control (MAC) layer efficiencies by MIMO is still in its early stage and is the aim of the research in this thesis. Many existing works in this field mainly employ distributed MIMO spatial multiplexing/Multi-User Detection (MUD) technique and stream sharing to enable multiple simultaneous transmissions. Most works require synchronization among multiple transmissions, split the channel, and aim for single-hop networks. In this thesis, a novel Hybrid Carrier Sense (HCS) framework is proposed, mainly at the MAC layer to exploit the power of MIMO. HCS senses the channel availability jointly by the virtual carrier sense and physical carrier sense. HCS does not require synchronization among nodes; each node independently and locally determines when to start its transmission. HCS not only shares the channel, but also exploits the bi-directional handshakes of the wireless transmissions and increases the number of simultaneous stream transmissions. For a network with M antennas in each node, HCS can accommodate 2x(M-1) streams instead of M streams achieved by all other existing works. Moreover, HCS is aimed for multi-hop wireless ad hoc networks, in which the hidden terminal, exposed terminal, and deafness problems greatly degrade network performance. The HCS framework incorporates solutions to these problems. HCS is implemented in an NS2 network simulator and the performance evaluation shows that HCS significantly outperforms MIMO-enabled IEEE 802.11 (in which MIMO is only used for enhancing the raw data rate in the physical layer), resulting in higher aggregate throughput, packet delivery ratio and fairness in multi-hop wireless ad hoc networks. The HCS framework will be in wide use in the future generation of wireless networks and opens up more research possibilities. Some ideas in the HCS framework can be applied not only for MIMO, but also for many other techniques surveyed in this thesis; or we may combine them with HCS to further boost the network performance. / Thesis (Ph.D, Electrical & Computer Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2013-10-15 21:46:15.983

New generations of video surveillance systems are expected to possess a large-scale network of intelligent video cameras with built-in image processing capabilities. These systems need to be tethered for reasons of bandwidth and power requirements. To support economical installation of video cameras and to manage the huge volume of information flow in these networks, there is a need for new shared-medium daisy-chained physical and medium access control (bus arbitration) layer communication protocols. This thesis describes the design principles of Spatial reuse FireWire Protocol (SFP), a novel request/grant bus arbitration protocol, architected for an acyclic daisy-chained network topology. SFP is a new extension of the IEEE 1394b FireWire architecture. SFP preserves the simple repeat path functionality of FireWire while offering two significant advantages: 1) SFP supports concurrent data transmissions over disjoint segments of the network (spatial reuse of bandwidth), which increases the effective throughput and 2) SFP provides support for priority traffic, which is necessary to handle real-time applications (like packet video), and mission critical applications (like event notifications between cameras) that have strict delay and jitter constraints. The delay and throughput performance of FireWire and SFP were evaluated using discrete-event queuing simulation models built with the CSIM-18 simulation library. Simulation results show that for a homogeneous traffic pattern SFP improves upon the throughput of IEEE 1394b by a factor of 2. For a traffic pattern typical of video surveillance applications, throughput increases by a factor of 7. Simulation results demonstrate that IEEE 1394b asynchronous stream based packet transactions offer better delay performance than isochronous transactions for variable bit rate video like MPEG-2 and MPEG-4. SFP extends this observation by supporting priority traffic. QoS for packet video is provided in SFP by mapping individual asynchronous stream packets to the three priority classes.

Abstract Efficient management of rather limited resources, including radio spectrum and mobile-terminal battery power, has been the fundamental design challenge of wireless networks and one of the most widespread research problems over the years. MAC (Medium Access Control) for packet access and CAC (Call Admission Control) for connection-oriented service domains are commonly used as effective tools to manage radio resources, capacity and performance of wireless networks while providing adequate QoS (Quality of Service) to mobile users. Hence, analysis and synthesis of efficient MAC and CAC schemes for advanced wireless networks have significant academic and practical values. This dissertation addresses that topic and presents seven separate contributions of the author: four on adaptive MAC schemes for centralized PRN (Packet Radio Networks), referred to as SPA (Smart Packet Access) and three on CAC schemes for cellular networks, referred to as SCA (Smart Call Admission). These contributions are published in eighteen original papers by the author, which are listed and referred to as Papers I–XVIII in this thesis. In SPA, the first contribution, reported in Papers II and IV, studies implementation losses of adaptive feedback-control MAC schemes for the uplink of DS-CDMA (Direct-Sequence Code Division Multiple Access) PRN in the presence of various system imperfections. The second contribution, reported in Papers XI, XII, XV and XVI, proposes a bit-rate adaptive MAC scheme for DS-CDMA PRN, referred to as SPR (Smart Packet Rate). The third contribution, reported in Papers III, XIII and XIV, develops two alternative MAC schemes with adaptive packet-length over correlated fading channels in DS-CDMA PRN, referred to as SPL (Smart Packet Length). The fourth contribution, reported in Papers XVII and XVIII, develops alternative adaptive MAC schemes for optimal trade-offs between throughput and energy consumption of TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) applications in advanced cellular networks. These include a so-called SPD (Smart Packet Dispatching) for HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) and, again, SPL for LSPA (Low Speed Packet Access). Moving on to SCA, the first contribution, reported in Papers V and VII, provides a simple and accurate analytical method for performance evaluation of a class of fixed-assignment CAC schemes with generic guard-channel policy and queuing priority handoffs in cellular networks. The second contribution, reported in Papers VI, IX and X, proposes a simple and effective SCAC (Soft-decision CAC) scheme for CDMA cellular networks. This is evaluated against fixed-assignment and measurement-based CAC schemes with a simple and reliable method provided as a part of the contribution. The third contribution, reported in Papers I and VIII, incorporates alternative QoS differentiation paradigms and resource partitioning into CAC, defines GoS (Grade of Service) for multimedia cellular networks, and provides an in-hand tool for efficient capacity and GoS management.

There is growing interest in developing reliable, high performance, underwater acoustic networks (UWANs). However, the acoustic communication channel, with its slow sound propagation, high signal attenuation, and low bandwidth, presents significant challenges to network designers. One advantage offered by the acoustic channel is the ability to form directional communication beams, which improve signal strength and reduce interference. The work presented here describes a novel medium access control protocol for UWANs designated Beam-Enabled Acoustic Link Establishment (BEALE). BEALE addresses the inherent challenges of the acoustic channel by incorporating two techniques: link-level scheduling and dynamic directional beam steering. BEALE neighbors exchange packets based on a link-level schedule negotiated between the two nodes. This scheduling allows nodes to steer transmit and receive beams in the appropriate direction at the appropriate time while minimizing control overhead. Using steered, directional beams increases the gain between sender and receiver, reduces the senders interference with other nodes, and, at the receiver, rejects possible interference from other nodes and noise sources common in the ocean, resulting in increased spatial reuse. The core protocol has been modeled in a UWAN simulator developed specifically for this research. The results demonstrate significant improvement in throughput and packet loss over two benchmark UWAN random access protocols when evaluated over a variety of spatial node topologies and traffic patterns. The core BEALE protocol is further enhanced herein by a Half-Duplex Sliding Window algorithm. The HDX Sliding window is shown through point-to-point simulation to markedly improve bandwidth utilization and error rate in large Bandwidth Delay Product (BDP) situations. Extension of the HDX Sliding Window to more complex multi-flow, two-way and multi-hop cases requires an additional level of communication coordination provided by the BEALE Sliding Window Scheduler presented here. The functional challenges and novel concept of the scheduler are described in detail. The BEALE protocol performance promotes a rich list of potential future research, such as rigorous characterization of the BEALE Sliding Window Scheduler, BEALE accommodation of mobile nodes, conceptual operability of a BEALE-enabled network of a central multi-beam sink node supporting large numbers of simple source nodes, and rate adaptation. / text

This paper presents a scheduling algorithm for point to point wireless power transfer system (WPTS) to sensor nodes of wireless body area networks (WBAN). Since the sensors of wireless body area networks are continuously monitoring and sending data to remote central unit, power crisis for these sensor nodes degrades the data transfer of patient monitoring system. Although energy harvesting from ambient sources using electromagnetic induction enhances the longevity of sensor performance, continuous operation in the primary side decreases the overall efficiency. With such paradigm in sight, a framework is proposed for increasing the primary battery longevity and reducing the transmission loss, inductive power is transmitted from primary to secondary unit using medium access control (MAC) protocols for underlying the centralized scheduling opportunity in a collision free scheme for channel access of rare yet critical emergency situation. In a preliminary study, the proposed scheduling for charging sensor nodes in a wireless body area network (WBAN) is evaluated in a case consideration.

Thesis (PhD)-- Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The hidden terminal problem, coupled with high node mobility apparent in vehicular networks, present challenges to e cient communication between vehicles at the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. Both of these challenges are fundamentally problems of lack of awareness, and manifest most prominently in the broadcasting of safety messages in infrastructure-free vehicle-to-vehicle communications. The design of existing contention-free and contention-based MAC approaches generally assumes that nodes that are in range of one another can take steps to coordinate communications at the MAC layer to overcome the hidden terminal problem and node mobility. Unicasting with the existing MAC standard, IEEE 802.11p, implicitly assumes an awareness range of twice the transmission range (a 1-hop awareness range) at most, since handshaking is used. For broadcasting, the assumption implies an awareness range that is at most equal to the transmission range, since only carrier sensing is used. Existing alternative contention-free approaches make the same assumption, with some protocols explicitly using a 1-hop awareness range to avoid packet collisions. This dissertation challenges the convention of assuming that a 1-hop awareness range is su cient for networks with high mobility, such as VANETs. In this dissertation, the impact of awareness range and management of the awareness information on MAC performance is researched. The impact of the number of slots that is required to support the awareness range is also evaluated. Three contention-free MAC protocols are introduced to support the research. The rst is an improved version of an existing MAC method, which is used to demonstrate the e ects on performance of changes to awareness management. The second MAC uses three competing processes to manage awareness information. The second MAC is designed for a con gurable awareness range and con gurable number of slots, and is used to evaluate the e ects of awareness range and number of slots on MAC performance. The third MAC is random access based and is used to evaluate the impact on performance of removing awareness completely. An analytical model is developed to support the simulated results. The simulation results demonstrate that awareness range, awareness information management, and number of slots used are key design parameters that signi cantly impact on MAC performance. The results further show that optimal awareness-related design parameters exist for given scenarios. Finally, the proposed contention-free and random access MAC methods are simulated and performance compared with IEEE 802.11p. All three outperform the contentionbased standard IEEE 802.11p. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die versteekte-nodus-probleem, gekoppel met die hoë vlakke van nodusbeweging teenwoordig in voertuignetwerke, bied uitdagings vir doeltre ende kommunikasie tussen voertuie in die medium-toegangbeheer- (MAC) vlak. Beide van hierdie probleme spruit uit beperkte bewustheid, en manifesteer veral in die uitsaai van veiligheidsboodskappe in infrastruktuurvrye voertuig-na-voertuig-kommunikasie. Die ontwerp van bestaande wedywerende en nie-wedywerende MAC benaderings neem aan dat nodusse wat binne bereik van mekaar is, stappe kan neem om kommunikasie op die MAC-vlak te koördineer, ten einde probleme met versteekte nodusse en mobiliteit te oorkom. Vir punt-tot-puntkommunikasie met IEEE 802.11p, impliseer dié aanname 'n bewustheidstrekking van hoogstens twee keer die radiobereik (1-hop bewustheidstrekking), aangesien bladskud gebruik word. In die geval van uitsaai, impliseer die aanname 'n bewustheidstrekking hoogstens gelyk is aan die radiobereik, aangesien slegs draeropsporing gebruik word. Nie-wedywerende metodes maak dieselfde aanname, met sommiges wat eksplisiet 1-hop-bewustheidstrekking gebruik om pakkieverliese te voorkom. Hierdie verhandeling wys dat hierdie aanname nie geld vir netwerke met hoë mobiliteit nie, soos wat die geval is vir VANET. In hierdie verhandeling word die impak van bewustheidstrekking en bestuur van die bewustheidsinligting in die MAC-vlak ondersoek. Die impak van die aantal tydgleuwe wat nodig is om die bewustheidstrekking te ondersteun word ook ondersoek. Drie nie-wedywerende metodes word bekendgestel om die navorsing te ondersteun. Die eerste is 'n verbeterde weergawe van 'n bestaande MAC, wat gebruik word om die e ekte van bewustheidsbestuur op MAC-werkverrigting te beoordeel. Die tweede MAC is ontwerp om veranderbare bewustheidstrekking en hoeveelheid tydgleuwe te ondersteun, en word gebruik om die e ekte van bewustheidstrekking en hoeveelheid tydgleuwe op MAC werkverrigting aan te beoordeel. Die derde MAC is ewetoeganklik (onbewus van omliggende nodusse) en word gebruik om die impak van die verwydering van bewustheid op werkverrigting te ondersoek. 'n Analitiese model is ontwikkel om die simulasieresultate te ondersteun. Die simulasieresultate dui aan dat bewustheidstrekking, bestuur van bewustheidsinligting, en hoeveelheid tydsgleuwe sleutel-ontwerpsveranderlikes is wat 'n beduidende impak het op MAC werkverrigting. Die resultate wys verder dat optimale ontwerpsveranderlikes, in terme van bewustheid, bestaan vir gegewe scenario's. Laastens, word die nie-wedywerende en ewetoeganklike MAC-metodes wat gesimuleer word se werkverrigting vergelyk met IEEE 802.11p. Al drie MAC metodes vaar beter as die wedywerende standaard, IEEE 802.11p.

The IEEE 802.15.4 standard is a low-power, low-rate MAC/PHY standard that meets most of the stringent requirements of single-hop wireless sensor networks. Sensor networks with nodal populations comprised of thousands of devices have been envisioned in conjunction with environmental, vehicular, and military applications, to mention a few. However, such large sensor network deployments necessitate multi-hop support as well as low power consumption. In light of the standard's extremely limited joint support of the two aforementioned attributes, this thesis presents two essential contributions. First, a framework is proposed to implement a new IEEE 802.15.4 operating mode, namely the synchronized peer-to-peer mode. This mode is designed to enable the standard's low-power features in peer-to-peer multi-hop-ready topologies. The second contribution is a distributed Guaranteed Time Slot (dGTS ) management scheme designed to function in the newly devised network mode. This protocol provides reliable contention-free access in peer-to-peer topologies in a completely distributed manner. Assuming optimal routing, our simulation experiments reveal perfect delivery ratios as long as the traffic load does not reach or surpass its saturation threshold. dGTS sustains at least twice the delivery ratio of contention access under sub-optimal dynamic routing. Moreover, the dGTS scheme exhibits minimum power consumption by eliminating the retransmissions attributed to contention, which in turn reduces the number of transmissions to a minimum. / Thesis (Master, Electrical & Computer Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2007-10-25 14:55:36.811

In order to efficiently utilize the scarce wireless resource as well as keep up with the ever-increasing demand for Quality-of-Service (QoS) of multimedia applications, wireless networks are undergoing rapid development and dramatic changes in the underlying technologies and protocols. The Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol, which coordinates the channel access and data transmission of wireless stations, plays a pivotal role in wireless networks. Performance modelling and analysis has been and continues to be of great theoretical and practical importance in the design and development of wireless networks. This research is devoted to developing efficient and cost-effective analytical tools for the performance analysis and enhancement of MAC protocols in Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) under heterogeneous multimedia traffic. To support the MAC-layer QoS in WLANs, the IEEE 802.11e Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) protocol has proposed three QoS differentiation schemes in terms of Arbitrary Inter-Frame Space (AIFS), Contention Window (CW), and Transmission Opportunity (TXOP). This research starts with the development of new analytical models for the TXOP scheme specified in the EDCA protocol under Poisson traffic. A dynamic TXOP scheme is then proposed to adjust the TXOP limits according to the status of the transmission queue. Theoretical analysis and simulation experiments show that the proposed dynamic scheme largely improves the performance of TXOP. To evaluate the TXOP scheme in the presence of ii heterogeneous traffic, a versatile analytical model is developed to capture the traffic heterogeneity and model the features of burst transmission. The performance results highlight the importance of taking into account the heterogeneous traffic for the accurate evaluation of the TXOP scheme in wireless multimedia networks. To obtain a thorough and deep understanding of the performance attributes of the EDCA protocol, a comprehensive analytical model is then proposed to accommodate the integration of the three QoS schemes of EDCA in terms of AIFS, CW, and TXOP under Poisson traffic. The performance results show that the TXOP scheme can not only support service differentiation but also improve the network performance, whereas the AIFS and CW schemes provide QoS differentiation only. Moreover, the results demonstrate that the MAC buffer size has considerable impact on the QoS performance of EDCA under Poisson traffic. To investigate the performance of EDCA in wireless multimedia networks, an analytical model is further developed for EDCA under heterogeneous traffic. The performance results demonstrate the significant effects of heterogeneous traffic on the total delay and frame losses of EDCA with different buffer sizes. Finally, an efficient admission control scheme is presented for the IEEE 802.11e WLANs based on analytical modelling and a game-theoretical approach. The admission control scheme can maintain the system operation at an optimal point where the utility of the Access Point (AP) is maximized with the QoS constraints of various users.

In order to efficiently utilize the scarce wireless resource as well as keep up with the ever-increasing demand for Quality-of-Service (QoS) of multimedia applications, wireless networks are undergoing rapid development and dramatic changes in the underlying technologies and protocols. The Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol, which coordinates the channel access and data transmission of wireless stations, plays a pivotal role in wireless networks. Performance modelling and analysis has been and continues to be of great theoretical and practical importance in the design and development of wireless networks. This research is devoted to developing efficient and cost-effective analytical tools for the performance analysis and enhancement of MAC protocols in Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) under heterogeneous multimedia traffic. To support the MAC-layer QoS in WLANs, the IEEE 802.11e Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) protocol has proposed three QoS differentiation schemes in terms of Arbitrary Inter-Frame Space (AIFS), Contention Window (CW), and Transmission Opportunity (TXOP). This research starts with the development of new analytical models for the TXOP scheme specified in the EDCA protocol under Poisson traffic. A dynamic TXOP scheme is then proposed to adjust the TXOP limits according to the status of the transmission queue. Theoretical analysis and simulation experiments show that the proposed dynamic scheme largely improves the performance of TXOP. To evaluate the TXOP scheme in the presence of ii heterogeneous traffic, a versatile analytical model is developed to capture the traffic heterogeneity and model the features of burst transmission. The performance results highlight the importance of taking into account the heterogeneous traffic for the accurate evaluation of the TXOP scheme in wireless multimedia networks. To obtain a thorough and deep understanding of the performance attributes of the EDCA protocol, a comprehensive analytical model is then proposed to accommodate the integration of the three QoS schemes of EDCA in terms of AIFS, CW, and TXOP under Poisson traffic. The performance results show that the TXOP scheme can not only support service differentiation but also improve the network performance, whereas the AIFS and CW schemes provide QoS differentiation only. Moreover, the results demonstrate that the MAC buffer size has considerable impact on the QoS performance of EDCA under Poisson traffic. To investigate the performance of EDCA in wireless multimedia networks, an analytical model is further developed for EDCA under heterogeneous traffic. The performance results demonstrate the significant effects of heterogeneous traffic on the total delay and frame losses of EDCA with different buffer sizes. Finally, an efficient admission control scheme is presented for the IEEE 802.11e WLANs based on analytical modelling and a game-theoretical approach. The admission control scheme can maintain the system operation at an optimal point where the utility of the Access Point (AP) is maximized with the QoS constraints of various users.