The research work presents an enhanced cross-layer routing solution for Wireless Mesh Networks (WMN) based on Received Signal Strength. WMN is an emerging technology with varied applications due to inherent advantages ranging from self-organisation to auto-con guration. Routing in WMN is fundamen- tally achieved by hop counts which have been proven to be de cient in terms of network performance. The realistic need to enhance the link quality metric to improve network performance has been a growing concern in recent times. The cross-Layer routing approach is one of the identi ed methods of improving routing process in Wireless technology. This work presents an RSSI-aware routing metric implemented on Optimized Link-State Routing (OLSR) for WMN. The embedded Received Signal Strength Information (RSSI) from the mesh nodes on the network is extracted, processed, transformed and incorporated into the routing process. This is to estimate efficiently the link quality for network path selections to improved network performance. The measured RSSI data is filtered by an Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) filter. This novel routing metric method is called RSSI-aware ETT (rETT). The performance of rETT is then optimised and the results compared with the fundamental hop count metric and the link quality metric by Expected Transmission Counts (ETX). The results reveal some characteristics of RSSI samples and link conditions through the analysis of the statistical data. The divergence or variability of the samples is a function of interference and multi-path e effect on the link. The implementation results show that the routing metric with rETT is more intelligent at choosing better network paths for the packets than hop count and ETX estimations. rETT improvement on network throughput is more than double (120%) compared to hop counts and 21% improvement compared to ETX. Also, an improvement of 33% was achieved in network delay compared to hop counts and 28% better than ETX. This work brings another perspective into link-quality metric solutions for WMN by using RSSI to drive the metric of the wireless routing protocol. It was carried out on test-beds and the results obtained are more realistic and practical. The proposed metric has shown improvement in performance over the classical hop counts metric and ETX link quality metric.

As a license-exempt technology, Ultra Wideband (UWB) can be used for numerous commercial and military applications, including ranging, sensing, low-range networking and multimedia consumer products. In the networking and consumer fields, the technology is envisioned to reach the mass market, with a very high density of UWB devices per home and office. The technology is based on the concept of transmitting a signal with very low power spectral density (PSD), while occupying a very wide bandwidth. In principle, the low emissions mask protects incumbent systems operating in the same spectrum from being interfered with, while the wide bandwidth offers the possibility of high data rates, in excess of 250 Mbps. UWB has been regulated to operate in the 3.1 to 10.6 GHz portion of the spectrum, with an emissions mask for the lower and upper bands outside this range. The commercial wireless mobile services based on third generation (3G) networks occupy a portion of the spectrum in the 2 GHz band, falling under the UWB emissions mask. UWB and UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephone Systems) devices will coexist, sharing the same spectrum. In this research, we investigate the UWB-3G coexistence problem, analyzing the impact of UWB on UMTS networks. Firstly, we review the mathematical model of the UWB signal, its temporal and spectral properties. We then analyze and model the effects of the UWB signal on a narrowband receiver. Next, we characterize the response of the UMTS receiver to UWB interference, determining its statistical behavior, and establishing a model to replicate it. We continue by proposing a link level model that offers a first order quantitative estimate of the impact of a UWB interferer on a UMTS victim receiver, demonstrating the potentially harmful effect of UWB on the UMTS link. We elaborate on that initial evidence by proposing and implementing a practical systemlevel algorithm to realistically simulate the behavior of the UMTS network in the presence of multiple sources of UWB interference. We complete the research by performing UMTS system level simulations under various conditions of UWB interference, with the purpose of assessing its impact upon a typical UMTS network. We analyze the sensitivity of the main UWB parameters affecting UMTS performance, investigating the coverage and capacity performance aspects of the network. The proposed analysis methodology creates a framework to characterize the impact that mass-deployed UWB can have on the performance of a 3G system. The literature on UWB-3G coexistence is inconclusive, and even contradictory, as to the impact UWB can have on the performance of third-generation wireless networks. While some studies show that UWB can be highly detrimental to 3G networks, others have concluded that both systems can gracefully coexist. Through this study, we found that at the current emissions limits regulated for UWB, a mass uptake of this technology can negatively affect the performance of third-generation (3G) wireless networks. The quality of service experienced by a 3G user in close proximity to an active UWB device can be noticeably degraded, in the form of reduced coverage range, poor voice quality (for a voice call), lower data rates (for a data session) or, in a extreme situation, complete service blockage. As the ratio of UWB devices surrounding a 3G user grows, the degradation becomes increasingly more evident. We determined that in order for UWB tocoexist with 3G networks without causing any performance degradation, a minimum power backoff of 20 dB should be applied to the current emission limits. / Ph. D.

The growth of interactive multimedia (IMM) applications is one of the major driving forces behind the swift evolution of next-generation wireless networks where the traffic is expected to be varying and widely diversified. The amalgamation of multimedia applications on high-speed wireless networks is somewhat a natural evolution. Wireless local area network (WLAN) was initially developed to carry non-real time data. Since this type of traffic is bursty in nature, the channel access schemes were based on contention. However real time traffic (e.g. voice, video and other IMM applications) are different from this traditional data traffic as they have stringent constraints on quality of service (QoS) metrics like delay, jitter and throughput. Employing contention free channel access schemes that are implemented on the point coordination function (PCF), as opposed to the numerous works on the contending access schemes, is the plausible and intuitive approach to accommodate these innate requirements. Published researches show that works have been done on improving the distributed coordination function (DCF) to handle IMM traffic. Since the WLAN traffic today is a mix of both, it is only natural to utilize both, DCF and PCF, in a balanced manner to leverage the inherent strengths of each of them. We saw a scope in this technique and develop a scheme that combines both contention and non-contention based phases to handle heterogeneous traffic in WLAN. Standard access scheme, like 802.11e, improves DCF functionality by trying to emulate the functions of PCF. Researchers have made a multitude of improvements on 802.11e to reduce the costs of implementing the scheme on WLAN. We explore improving the PCF, instead, as this is more stable and implementations would be less costly. The initial part of this research investigates the effectiveness of the point coordination function (PCF) for carrying interactive multimedia traffic in WLAN. The performance statistics of IMM traffic were gathered and analyzed. Our results showed that PCF-based setup for IMM traffic is most suitable for high load scenarios. We confirmed that there is a scope in improving IMM transmissions on WLAN by using the PCF. This is supported by published researches on PCF related schemes in carrying IMM traffic on WLAN. Further investigations, via simulations, revealed that partitioning the superframe (SF) duration according to the need of the IMM traffic has considerable impact on the QoS of the WLAN. A theoretical model has been developed to model the two phases, i.e., PCF and DCF, of WLAN medium access control (MAC). With this model an optimum value of the contention free period (CFP) was calculated to meet the QoS requirement of IMM traffic being transmitted. Treating IMM traffic as data traffic or equating both IMM and non-IMM together could compromise a fair treatment that should be given to these QoS sensitive traffic. A self-adaptive scheme, called MAC with Dynamic Superframe Selection (MDSS) scheme, generates an optimum SF configuration according to the QoS requirements of traversing IMM traffic. That particular scheme is shown to provide a more efficient transmission on WLAN. MDSS maximizes the utilization of CFP while providing fairness to contention period (CP). The performance of MDSS is compared to that of 802.11e, which is taken as the benchmark for comparison. Jitter and delay result for MDSS is relatively lower while throughput is higher. This confirms that MDSS is capable of making significant improvement to the standard access scheme.