Thesis (MScEng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / A low earth orbit satellite is to provide the telecommunications link to facilitate email services to rural areas, where the infrastructure necessary for e-mail is lacking (e.g. no telephone lines). Communication time with this satellite from any particular point on the ground is less than one hour per day. It is thus of utmost importance to maximise the data throughput rate for the system. The contribution of this thesis is to improve the performance of CSMA/CA by adapting and optimising it for the above application. This improved protocol is used to regulate data flow through the system. Specific attention is given to the comparison of various random variable distributions for use as the back-off random variable. Two pieces of software are further contributed. First, a set of MATLAB scripts which are used for comparing various back-off random variable distributions and optimising each of these distributions. Secondly, an extensive (more than 2500 lines of code) OMNeT++ simulation of the improved CSMA/CA protocol, complete with MATLAB scripts for setting up multiple simulation runs and plotting the results. Both pieces of software accept the system constraints as parameters, and are thus easily adaptable for a similar system which may use the same protocol, but has different parameters. It is concluded that the set of MATLAB scripts are a fairly accurate tool for optimising throughput, as is confirmed by the OMNeT++ simulations, and that OMNeT++ has merit for simulating the given type of system and protocol.

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

This thesis investigates distributed medium access control (MAC) protocols custom tailored to both impulse-based ultra wideband (I-UWB) radios and to large ad hoc and sensor networks. I-UWB is an attractive radio technology for large ad hoc and sensor networks due to its robustness to multipath fading effects, sub-centimeter ranging ability, and low-cost, low-power hardware. Current medium access control (MAC) protocols for I-UWB target small wireless personal area networks (WPANs) and cellular networks, but they are not suitable for large, multihop ad hoc and sensor networks. Therefore, this paper proposes a new type of MAC protocol that enables ad hoc and sensor networks to realize the benefits of I-UWB radios. First, we propose a method to overcome the challenges of quickly, reliably, and efficiently sensing medium activity in an ultra wideband network. This provides a base MAC protocol similar to carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) in narrowband systems. Next, we propose to exploit the unique signaling of I-UWB to improve performance over the base MAC protocol without the associated overhead of similar improvements in narrowband systems. I-UWB enables a distributed multichannel MAC protocol, which improves throughput. I-UWB also facilitates a busy signal MAC protocol, which reduces wasted energy from corrupt packets. Finally, because the I-UWB Physical Layer and MAC Layer affect the network and application layers, we propose a cross-layer adaptive system that optimizes performance. Physical Layer simulations show that both the base protocol and the improvements are practical for an I-UWB radio. Networks level simulations characterize the performance of the proposed MAC protocols and compare them to existing MAC protocols. / Ph. D.

This dissertation considers the design, evaluation and optimization of algorithms/ techniques/ system parameters for distributed wireless networks specifically ad-hoc and cognitive wireless networks. In the first part of the dissertation, we consider ad-hoc networks using opportunistic carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) protocols. The key challenge in optimizing the performance of such systems is to find a good compromise among three interdependent quantities: the density and channel quality of the scheduled transmitters, and the resulting interference seen at receivers. We propose two new channel-aware slotted CSMA protocols and study the tradeoffs they achieve amongst these quantities. In particular, we show that when properly optimized these protocols offer substantial improvements relative to regular CSMA -- particularly when the density of nodes is moderate to high. Moreover, we show that a simple quantile based opportunistic CSMA protocol can achieve robust performance gains without requiring careful parameter optimization. In the second part of the dissertation, we study a cognitive wireless network where licensed (primary) users and unlicensed 'cognitive' (secondary) users coexist on shared spectrum. In this context, many system design parameters affect the joint performance, e.g., outage and capacity, seen by the two user types. We explore the performance dependencies between primary and secondary users from a spatial reuse perspective, in particular, in terms of the outage probability, node density and joint network capacity. From the design perspective the key system parameters determining the joint transmission capacity, and tradeoffs, are the detection radius (detection signal to interference and noise power ratio (SINR) threshold) and decoding SINR threshold. We show how the joint network capacity region can be optimized by varying these parameters. In the third part of the dissertation, we consider a cognitive network in a heterogeneous environment, including indoor and outdoor transmissions. We characterize the joint network capacity region under three different spectrum (white space) detection techniques which have different degrees of radio frequency (RF) - environment awareness. We show that cognitive devices relying only on the classical signal energy detection method perform poorly due to limitations on detecting primary transmitters in environments with indoor shadowing. This can be circumvented through direct use (e.g., database access) of location information on primary transmitters, or better yet, on that of primary receivers. We also show that if cognitive devices have positioning information, then the secondary network's capacity increases monotonically with increased indoor shadowing in the environment. This dissertation extends the recent efforts in using stochastic geometric models to capture large scale performance characteristics of wireless systems. It demonstrates the usefulness of these models towards understanding the impact of physical /medium access (MAC) layer parameters and how they might be optimized. / text

Aquesta tesi suggereix usar un compte enrere determinista després de les transmissions exitoses en les xarxes d'àrea local sense fils. Com que les estacions que han transmès amb èxit en el seu darrer intent no poden col·lisionar entre elles en el seu proper intent, el nombre de col·lisions es redueix. Per tant, anomenem el protocol accés múltiple per detecció de portadora amb evitament de col·lisions millorat. El protocol es modela i es simula en diversos escenaris per a la seva avaluació. S'arriba a la conclusió de que el protocol proposat ofereix un rendiment igual o major que l'existent. / This thesis suggests the use of a deterministic backoff after successful transmissions in the MAC protocol of WLANs. Since those stations that successfully transmitted in their last collision attempt cannot collide among them in their next transmission attempt, the number of collisions is reduced. Hence, the protocol is called Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Enhanced Collision Avoidance. The protocol is modelled and simulations are used to assess its performance in a variety of scenarios. It is concluded that the proposed protocol performs always equal or better than the legacy one.

Cette thèse analyse la possibilité d'utiliser des communications sans fil inter-véhiculaires pour améliorer la sécurité routière. Les performances du nouveau réseau ainsi créé (réseau ad-hoc véhiculaire) sont étudiées analytiquement et par des simulations dans un environnement réaliste. La thèse se concentre surtout sur des scénarios avec une forte densité de véhicules. Dans ce cas, l'accès au support devient un problème essentiel, en principal pour les applications de sécurité routière qui nécessitent une qualité de service élevée pour fonctionner dans un tel contexte. Ce travail montre que la version actuelle du standard IEEE 802.11, proposé comme méthode d'accès dans les réseaux véhiculaires, ne peut pas résoudre ce problème de passage à l'échelle pour supporter correctement les applications de sécurité routière. Plusieurs améliorations possibles sont analysées, liées à l'utilisation optimale de certains paramètres du protocole comme la taille de la fenêtre de contention ou bien le seuil de détection de la porteuse. Des nouveaux mécanismes adaptatifs visant ces paramètres sont proposés et les améliorations ainsi obtenues sont non-négligeables. Finalement, une nouvelle méthode d'accès est définie, en tenant compte des caractéristiques des applications de sécurité routière. Toujours basée sur des techniques CSMA, cette technique donne des résultats largement supérieurs à la version standard actuelle. / The equipment of vehicles with wireless communication devices in order to improve road safety is a major component of a future intelligent transportation system. The success and availability of IEEE 802.11-based products make this technology the main competitor for the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer used in vehicle-to-vehicle communication. The IEEE 802.11p amendment has been specially designed in this special context of wireless access in vehicular environments. However, as all the other approaches based on Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA), this protocol presents scalability problems, which leads to poor performance in high density scenarios, quite frequent in the case of a vehicular ad hoc network (VANET). This thesis studies the congestion control problem in the context of safety vehicular communications, with a special focus on the back-off mechanism and the carrier sense function. First of all, a number of important characteristics presented by the safety messages are discovered and understood by the means of an analytical framework. Second, the lessons learned from the analytical study are put into practice with the design of two adaptive mechanisms (one for the contention window and the other one for the carrier sense threshold) that take into account the local vehicular density. These mechanisms remain simple, but highly efficient, while also being straightforward to integrate in IEEE 802.11 devices. Finally, by taking into account the most important properties of a safety VANET, a new CSMA-based MAC protocol is proposed. This new access method, named Safety Range CSMA (SR-CSMA), relies on the idea that collisions can not be avoided in a high density network. However, by increasing the number of simultaneous transmissions between geographically distant nodes, SR-CSMA manages to better protect the immediate neighborhood, the most important area for safety applications.

A wireless local area network (WLAN) provides high bandwidth to users in a limited geographical area. This network faces certain challenges and constraints that are not imposed on their wired counterparts. They are: frequency allocation, interference and reliability, security, power consumption, human safety, mobility, connection to wired LAN,service area, handoff and roaming, dynamic configuration and the throughput. But the wireless medium relies heavily on the features of MAC protocol and the MAC protocol is the core of medium access control for WLANs. The available MAC protocols all have their own merits and demerits. In our research works, we propose a hybrid MAC protocol forWLAN. In the design, we have combined the merits of the TDMA and CDMA systems to improve the throughput of the WLAN in a picocellular environment. We have used the reservation and polling methods of MAC protocols to handle both the low and high data traffics of the mobile users. We have strictly followed the standards specified by IEEE 802.11 for WLANs to implement the designed MAC protocol. We have simulated the hybrid TDMA/CDMA based MAC protocols combined with RAP (Randomly Addressed Polling) for Wireless Local Area Networks. We have developed a closed form mathematical expressions analytically for this protocol. We have also studied the power control aspects in this environment and we derived a closed form mathematical expressions analytically for this power control technique. This hybrid protocol is capable of integrating different types of traffic (like CBR,VBR and ABR services) and compiles with the requirements of next-generation systems.The lower traffic arrival is dealt with the Random Access and the higher traffic arrival is with the Polling methods. This enables us to obtain higher throughput and lowmean delay performance compared to the contention-reservation-based MAC schemes. The protocol offers the ability to integrate different types of services in a flexible way by the use of multiple slots per frame, while CDMA allows multiple users to transmit simultaneously using their own codes. The RAP uses an efficient "back-off" algorithm to improve throughput at higher arrival rates of user's data. The performance is evaluated in terms of throughput, delay, and rejection rate using computer simulation. A detailed simulation is carried out regarding the maximum number of users that each base station can support on a lossy channel. This work has analyzed the desired user's signal quality in a single cell CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) system in the presence of MAI (Multiple Access Interference). Earlier power control techniques were designed to assure that all signals are received with equal power levels. Since these algorithms are designed for a imperfect control of power, the capacity of the system is reduced for a given BER (Bit-Error Rate). We proposed an EPCM (Efficient Power Control Mechanism) based system capacity which is designed for the reverse link (mobile to base station) considering the path loss, log-normal shadowing and Rayleigh fading. We have simulated the following applications for the further improvement of the performance of the designed MAC protocol:Designed protocol is tested under different traffic conditions. The protocol is tested for multimedia traffic under application oriented QoS requirements. Buffer Management and resource allocation. Call Admission Control (hand-offs, arrival of new users). The adaptability to the variable nature of traffic.The propagation aspects in the wireless medium. The proposed MAC protocol has been simulated and analysed by using C++/MATLAB Programming in IBM/SUN-SOLARIS UNIX environment. The results were plotted using MATLAB software. All the functions of the protocol have been tested by an analysis and also by simulation. Call admission control function of the protocol has been tested by simulation and analysis in a multimedia wireless network topology and from analysis we found that at low traffic the throughput is high and at high traffic the throughput is kept constant at a reasonable high value. The simulation results also justify/ coordinate the analysis results. Dynamic channel allocation function of the protocol was tested and analysed and the coordinated results show that at low traffic, high throughput and at high traffic the throughput is constant. Buffer management function of the protocol simulation shows the results that the packet loss can be controlled to a minimum by adjusting the buffer threshold level at any traffic conditions. Maintenance of data transfer during the hand-offs function was simulated and the results show that the blocked calls are less during low traffic and at high traffic the blocked calls can be kept constant at low value. Thus, the proposed model aimed at having high throughput, high spectral efficiency, low delay, moderate BER and moderate blocking probability. We have considered a pico cell with a maximum of several users and studied the power efficiency of combined channel coding and modulation with perfect power controlled CDMA system. Thus our simulation of the "software radio" has flexibility in choosing the proper channel coders dynamically depending upon the variations of AWGN channel.

Thesis (MScEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this thesis, the investigation into the optimization of low speed communication protocols for narrow band networks will be presented. The main focus will be on analysing commonly used low speed communication protocols and investigate an alternative to these protocols to provide an optimized low speed narrow band network that provides better performance at high and low channel utilization. A study of existing low speed communication networks within the field of water supply has been used to identify the most appropriate protocols to be included in the analysis. The analysis of each protocol discussed includes the development of a simulation and theoretical model, with parameters based on those obtained from implemented communication networks focusing on the parameters used within the Namib water supply scheme of NamWater in Namibia. Of the currently implemented contention protocols, the non-persistent Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) protocol is implemented the most. Current models used for modelling these protocols make use of various assumptions. These models have been expanded to provide a more accurate representation of the non-persistent CSMA model. The Round Robin Polling (RRP) protocol is another well known protocol used within the telemetry industry and has also been modelled as an alternative to the non-persistent CSMA model. The Adaptive Tree Walk (ATW) protocol has been identified as the limited contention protocol to be modelled as a possible alternative to the conventional methods used. A new model has been developed for modelling this protocol by making use of the same strategies and tools used in the modelling of the non-persistent CSMA and RRP protocols. The Simulation modelling has been developed by making use of DESMO-J, an Object Orientated Simulation API based in Java, developed by the Faculty of Informatics at the University of Hamburg. DESMO-J has been chosen as an alternative to the more traditional simulation languages due to its complete documentation, support structures, ease of use and flexibility. All theoretical models have been implemented in Matlab. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie tesis sal die ondersoek na die optimering van laespoed protokolle vir kommunikasie oor nouband netwerke voorgelê word. Die hoof fokus is op die analise van algemene laespoed kommunikasie protokolle en die ondersoek van alternatiewe wat ’n meer optimale laespoed nouband netwerk sal lewer deur beter werkverigting by lae en hoë kanaalverkeer. ’n Studie van praktiese laespoed nouband netwerke in die veld van waterverspreiding word gebruik om die mees algemene protokolle te identifiseer wat in die analise ingesluit moet word. Die analise van die protokolle sluit in teoretiese en simulasie modelle, met parameters soos geidentifiseer uit die studie van ‘n praktiese netwerk, naamlik die Namib waterverspreidingskema van NamWater in Namibië. Die ’Non-persistent Carrier Sense Multiple Access’ en ’Round Robin Polling’ protokolle is geidentifiseer as dié wat meeste geimplementeer word. Die werkverigting van die protokolle is geanaliseer deur gebruik te maak van teoretiese en simulasie modeleringstegnieke. Huidige modelle van die CSMA protokol is gebaseer op sekere aannames. Hierdie aannames word aangepas en verbeter vir implementering van die teoretiese model. Die model word ook verder uitgebrei om beter resultate te lewer oor ’n groter parameterstel. Die ’Adaptive Tree Walk’ protokol is geidentifiseer as ’n moontlike optimale protokol en word gemodeleer en vergelyk teen die CSMA en RRP protokolle se werkverigting. Die simulasiemodelle is ontwikkel deur gebruik te maak van die DESMO-J sagteware, soos ontwikkel as ’n Java program-koppelvlak deur die Universiteit van Hamburg se Fakulteit van Informatika. DESMO-J is gekies as ’n alternatief vir die meer tradisionele simuleringstale omrede goeie dokumentasie, maklike gebruik en buigbaarheid. Alle teoretiese modelering is uitgevoer in Matlab.

Beim Entwurf großer Netzwerke der Automation ermöglichen Methoden der Leistungsbewertung den Test und die Dimensionierung eines Netzwerkes bereits vor der Inbetriebnahme und erlauben damit einen effizienten, qualitätsorientierten Entwurf. Es ist jedoch sehr wissensintensiv und aufwendig, entsprechende Analyse- oder Simulations-Modelle aufzustellen und die Ergebnisse auszuwerten, weshalb die Methoden in der Praxis der Automation selten verwendet werden. Viel vertrauter sind dem Entwerfer hingegen die speziellen Software-Tools, mit denen in der Automation Netzwerke entworfen werden. Auf Basis der Datenbanken dieser Tools werden in dieser Arbeit verschieden Verfahren zur automatischen Systemmodellierung, Verkehrsmodellierung, Leistungsbewertung und Fehlerdiagnose zu einem Control Network Performance Engineering kombiniert, welches die Qualitätsbewertung und -beratung nahtlos und ohne Mehraufwand in den Netzwerkentwurf integriert. (Die Dissertation wurde veröffentlicht im Jörg Vogt Verlag, Voglerstr. 20, 01277 Dresden, Internet: http://www.vogtverlag.de/, email: info@vogtverlag.de, ISBN 978-3-938860-10-6) / During the design of large automation networks, performance analysis methods can be used for testing and dimensioning the network before implementation and are essential for an efficient and reliable design process. However, setting up the necessary analytical or simulative models is time-consuming, requires in-depth knowledge, and is therefore often not applicable in practice. The network designers are much more used to the design tools used to develop automation networks. Based on these tools' databases various methods for automated system and traffic modeling, performance analysis and diagnoses are combined in the control network performance engineering that seamlessly integrates quality analysis and consulting into network design without requiring additional effort. (This manuscript is also available - in the form of a book - from Jörg Vogt Verlag, Voglerstr. 20, 01277 Dresden, Germany world-wide web address: http://www.vogtverlag.de/, electronic-mail address: info@vogtverlag.de, ISBN 978-3-938860-10-6 )

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