IEEE 802.11 PHY supports multiple transmission rates according to multiple different modulations and coding schemes. Each WiFi station selects its own transmission rate according to its own algorithm; in particular, the IEEE 802.11 standards do not specify the bit-rate selection method. Although many adaptive bit-rate selection algorithms have been proposed, there is limited research and evaluation on the performance of such algorithms for roadside networks, especially in cases with multi-vehicle roadside multi-vehicular WiFi networks. In this thesis we propose an opportunistic highest bit-rate algorithm, Opportunistic Highest Bit-Rate Multi-Vehicular WiFi Networks (OHBR-MVN), specifically for roadside multi-vehicular WiFi networks. Our proposal is based on three key characteristics of such networks: (1) vehicles will drive closer to, and eventually pass, the roadside WiFi station, experiencing a progressively better transmission environment; (2) the vast majority of data transmitted in single-vehicle drive-by downloading scenarios occurs at the maximum transmission rate; (3) vehicles that transmit at less than the maximum rate do so at the expense of those that could send more data at a higher transmission rate. We therefore believe that transmitting only at the highest possible bit-rate is the preferred algorithm for such networks. Further, this approach keeps the bit-rate selection extremely simple, avoiding the complexity and resulting problems of adaptive approaches. Through a series of experiments that compare the throughput of both fixed and adaptive bit-rate selection algorithms we show that our approach yields both higher throughput and better fairness characteristics, while being significantly simple, and thus more robust.

IEEE 802.11 PHY supports multiple transmission rates according to multiple different modulations and coding schemes. Each WiFi station selects its own transmission rate according to its own algorithm; in particular, the IEEE 802.11 standards do not specify the bit-rate selection method. Although many adaptive bit-rate selection algorithms have been proposed, there is limited research and evaluation on the performance of such algorithms for roadside networks, especially in cases with multi-vehicle roadside multi-vehicular WiFi networks. In this thesis we propose an opportunistic highest bit-rate algorithm, Opportunistic Highest Bit-Rate Multi-Vehicular WiFi Networks (OHBR-MVN), specifically for roadside multi-vehicular WiFi networks. Our proposal is based on three key characteristics of such networks: (1) vehicles will drive closer to, and eventually pass, the roadside WiFi station, experiencing a progressively better transmission environment; (2) the vast majority of data transmitted in single-vehicle drive-by downloading scenarios occurs at the maximum transmission rate; (3) vehicles that transmit at less than the maximum rate do so at the expense of those that could send more data at a higher transmission rate. We therefore believe that transmitting only at the highest possible bit-rate is the preferred algorithm for such networks. Further, this approach keeps the bit-rate selection extremely simple, avoiding the complexity and resulting problems of adaptive approaches. Through a series of experiments that compare the throughput of both fixed and adaptive bit-rate selection algorithms we show that our approach yields both higher throughput and better fairness characteristics, while being significantly simple, and thus more robust.

More than a billion people access the Internet through residential broadband connections worldwide, and this number is projected to grow further. Surprisingly, little is known about some important properties of these networks: What performance do users obtain from their ISP? What factors affect performance of broadband networks? Are users bottlenecked by their ISP or by their home network? How are applications such as the Web affected by these factors? Answering these questions is difficult; there is tremendous diversity of technologies and applications in home and broadband networks. While a lot of research has tackled these questions piecemeal, the lack of a good vantage point to obtain good measurements from these networks makes it notably difficult to do a holistic characterization of the ﾓlast mileﾔ. In this dissertation we use the home gateway to characterize home and access networks and mitigate performance bottlenecks that are specific to such networks. The home gateway is uniquely situated; it is always on and, as the hub of the network, it can directly observe the home network, the access network, and user traffic. We present one such gateway- based platform, BISmark, that currently has nearly 200 active access points in over 20 countries. We do a holistic characterization of three important components of the last mile using the gateway as the vantage point: the access link that connects the user to the wider Internet, the home network to which devices connect, and Web performance, one of the most commonly used applications in today's Internet. We first describe the design, development, and deployment of the BISmark platform. BISmark uses custom gateways to enable measurements and evaluate performance opti- mizations directly from home networks. We characterize access link performance in the US using measurements from the gateway; we evaluate existing techniques and propose new techniques that help us understand these networks better. We show how access link technology and home networking hardware can affect performance. We then develop a new system that uses passive measurements at the gateway to localize bottlenecks to either the wireless network or the access link. We deploy this system in 64 homes worldwide and characterize the nature of bottlenecks, and the state of the wireless network in these homes - specifically we show how the wireless network is rarely the bottleneck as throughput exceeds 35 Mbits/s. Finally, we characterize bottlenecks that affect Web performance that are specific to the last mile. We show how latency in the last mile results in page load times stagnating at throughput exceeding 16 Mbits/s, and how simple techniques deployed at the gateway can mitigate these bottlenecks.

Small cells are deployed in a crowded areas with a high demand for both coverage and capacity. It is hard to address both of these requirements simultaneous with a conventional mobile network architecture based on macro cells. In many case a wire is not available to connect the small cell to the core of the mobile network. Under these circumstances a wireless link could be a convenient solution for the backhaul. In this master’s thesis IEEE 802.11n technology was evaluated to assess its suitability for backhaul from a small wireless cell. The performance of wireless equipment manufactured by several vendors has been measured. The results of these measurements were analyzed and compared to a set of requirements established for small cell backhaul. The analysis has affirmed that IEEE 802.11n is capable of providing sufficient performance to be used for small cell backhaul in various deployment scenarios. Note that in this thesis we include femtocells, picocells, wireless LAN access points, and other technologies in the category of "small cells". Another research questions of this master’s thesis is security of small cell backhaul. In addition to protecting the backhaul link itself, the security research investigated the safety of the whole mobile network architecture remodeled with the introduction of small cells. A mechanism to integrate secure small cells into a mobile network was developed. The results obtained during the project will be used as an input for product development activities in the company hosting the project. The resulting product could become the target of future wireless system performance measurements. / Små celler sätts ut i områden med höga krav på täckning och kapacitet. Det är svårt att adressera båda dessa krav samtidigt med en konventionell mobil nätverksarkitektur baserad på makro-celler. I många fall finns ingen kabel tillgänglig att koppla den lilla cellen till kärnan i det mobila nätverket. Under dessa omständigheter kan en trådlös länk vara en lämplig lösning för backhaul. I denna avhandling utvärderas IEEE 802.11n-teknikens lämplighet för backhaul av små celler. Prestandan hos trådlös utrustning tillverkad av flera olika tillverkare har mätts. Resultaten av dessa mätningar analyserades och jämfördes med en mängd krav uppsatta för backhaul av små celler. Analysen har förankrat att IEEE 802.11n är kapabel till att tillhandahålla tillräcklig prestanda för backhaul av små celler i diverse miljöer. Notera att i denna avhandling så inkluderas femto-celler, pico-celler, Wireless LAN-åtkomstpunkter, och andra teknologier i kategorin små celler". Andra forskningsfrågor berörda i avhandlingen är säkerhet vid backhaul av små celler. Utöver att skydda backhaul-länken själv så undersökte säkerhetsforskningen säkerheten av hela mobilnätsarkitekturen när små celler används i arkitekturen. En mekanism för att integrera säkra små celler i ett mobilnät utvecklades. De resultat som införskaffades under projektets genomförande kommer att användas som input till produktutvecklingsaktiviteter hos företaget som sponsrade projektet. Den resulterande produkten skulle kunna bli mål för framtida prestandamätningar av trådlösa system.

Submitted by Johnny Rodrigues (johnnyrodrigues@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-05-01T13:36:45Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DALTON CÉZANE GOMES VALADARES - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGCC 2015..pdf: 6500440 bytes, checksum: f8b244a64bf81646d322b68023c204d9 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-01T13:36:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DALTON CÉZANE GOMES VALADARES - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGCC 2015..pdf: 6500440 bytes, checksum: f8b244a64bf81646d322b68023c204d9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-07 / No âmbito industrial, é sabido que as redes sem fio são as mais indicadas, já que possuem baixo custo de implantação, maior flexibilidade e são menos invasivas ao ambiente. Na literatura, dentre as tecnologias de rede sem fio aplicadas em ambientes industriais, pouco destaque é dado às tradicionais 802.11a/b/g, conhecidas pelo uso doméstico e chamadas WiFi (acrônimo de Wireless Fidelity). A pesquisa, ora descrita, tem como objetivo avaliar o desempenho de uma rede 802.11g em um ambiente industrial de uma usina termoelétrica (UTE). O cenário de análise foi constituído de 4 enlaces de comunicação, com o principal deles possuindo uma distância de, aproximadamente, 150 metros. Para a avaliação do desempenho da rede, foram consideradas três métricas: taxa de perda de pacotes, Taxa de Transferência e tempo de resposta. Os testes foram realizados por meio do estabelecimento de comunicação entre pontos dentro da sala de motores (primeiro enlace) e o servidor localizado na sala de administração (último enlace). Os resultados obtidos para potência do sinal foram comparados aos valores estimados por meio do modelo Log Distance Path Loss. Observou-se que o desempenho da comunicação realizada pela rede não sofreu degradação significativa, mesmo em um ambiente sujeito à interferência eletromagnética e demais características intrínsecas a uma UTE. Após a análise concluída, verificou-se a viabilidade do uso da tecnologia 802.11g para comunicação de dados em ambientes com características similares às de uma usina termoelétrica. / In industry, it is known that wireless networks are the most suitable, since they have low implementation cost, greater flexibility and are less invasive to the environment. In the literature, among the wireless network technologies applied in industrial environments, little attention is given to traditional 802.11a/b/g, known by the domestic use and by the acronym WiFi (Wireless Fidelity). This work aims to evaluate the performance of an 802.11g network in an industrial environment of a thermal power plant. The scenario consists of four communication links, with the main one having a distance of approximately 150m. For the evaluation of network performance, we considered three metrics: packet loss rate, bandwidth and response time. Tests were carried out through the establishment of communication between points within the engine square (first link) and the server located in the boardroom (last link). The obtained results for the signal strength at each point were compared with the estimated values by the Log Distance Path Loss Model. It was verified that the performance of the communication performed by the network did not suffer significant degradation, even being in an environment subject to considerable electromagnetic interference. After the concluded analysis, it was found feasibility of using 802.11g technology for data communication in environments with characteristics similar to those of a thermal power plant.