Performance analysis of the IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function
TL;DR: In this paper, a simple but nevertheless extremely accurate, analytical model to compute the 802.11 DCF throughput, in the assumption of finite number of terminals and ideal channel conditions, is presented.
Abstract: The IEEE has standardized the 802.11 protocol for wireless local area networks. The primary medium access control (MAC) technique of 802.11 is called the distributed coordination function (DCF). The DCF is a carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) scheme with binary slotted exponential backoff. This paper provides a simple, but nevertheless extremely accurate, analytical model to compute the 802.11 DCF throughput, in the assumption of finite number of terminals and ideal channel conditions. The proposed analysis applies to both the packet transmission schemes employed by DCF, namely, the basic access and the RTS/CTS access mechanisms. In addition, it also applies to a combination of the two schemes, in which packets longer than a given threshold are transmitted according to the RTS/CTS mechanism. By means of the proposed model, we provide an extensive throughput performance evaluation of both access mechanisms of the 802.11 protocol.
Citations
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26 Sep 2004
TL;DR: A new metric for routing in multi-radio, multi-hop wireless networks with stationary nodes called Weighted Cumulative ETT (WCETT) significantly outperforms previously-proposed routing metrics by making judicious use of the second radio.
Abstract: We present a new metric for routing in multi-radio, multi-hop wireless networks. We focus on wireless networks with stationary nodes, such as community wireless networks.The goal of the metric is to choose a high-throughput path between a source and a destination. Our metric assigns weights to individual links based on the Expected Transmission Time (ETT) of a packet over the link. The ETT is a function of the loss rate and the bandwidth of the link. The individual link weights are combined into a path metric called Weighted Cumulative ETT (WCETT) that explicitly accounts for the interference among links that use the same channel. The WCETT metric is incorporated into a routing protocol that we call Multi-Radio Link-Quality Source Routing.We studied the performance of our metric by implementing it in a wireless testbed consisting of 23 nodes, each equipped with two 802.11 wireless cards. We find that in a multi-radio environment, our metric significantly outperforms previously-proposed routing metrics by making judicious use of the second radio.
2,633Â citations
01 Dec 2012
TL;DR: An introduction to event- and self-triggered control systems where sensing and actuation is performed when needed and how these control strategies can be implemented using existing wireless communication technology is shown.
Abstract: Recent developments in computer and communication technologies have led to a new type of large-scale resource-constrained wireless embedded control systems. It is desirable in these systems to limit the sensor and control computation and/or communication to instances when the system needs attention. However, classical sampled-data control is based on performing sensing and actuation periodically rather than when the system needs attention. This paper provides an introduction to event- and self-triggered control systems where sensing and actuation is performed when needed. Event-triggered control is reactive and generates sensor sampling and control actuation when, for instance, the plant state deviates more than a certain threshold from a desired value. Self-triggered control, on the other hand, is proactive and computes the next sampling or actuation instance ahead of time. The basics of these control strategies are introduced together with a discussion on the differences between state feedback and output feedback for event-triggered control. It is also shown how event- and self-triggered control can be implemented using existing wireless communication technology. Some applications to wireless control in process industry are discussed as well.
1,642Â citations
09 Jul 2003
TL;DR: In this paper, the performance of the IEEE 802.11b wireless local area networks is analyzed theoretically by deriving simple expressions for the useful throughput, validate them by means of simulation, and compare with several performance measurements.
Abstract: The performance of the IEEE 802.11b wireless local area networks is analyzed. We have observed that when some mobile hosts use a lower bit rate than the others, the performance of all hosts is considerably degraded. Such a situation is a common case in wireless local area networks in which a host far away from an access point is subject to important signal fading and interference. To cope with this problem, the host changes its modulation type, which degrades its bit rate to some lower value. Typically, 802.11b products degrade the bit rate from 11 Mb/s to 5.5, 2, or 1 Mb/s when repeated unsuccessful frame transmissions are detected. In such a case, a host transmitting for example at 1 Mb/s reduces the throughput of all other hosts transmitting at 11 Mb/s to a low value below 1 Mb/s. The basic CSMA/CA channel access method is at the root of this anomaly: it guarantees an equal long term channel access probability to all hosts. When one host captures the channel for a long time because its bit rate is low, it penalizes other hosts that use the higher rate. We analyze the anomaly theoretically by deriving simple expressions for the useful throughput, validate them by means of simulation, and compare with several performance measurements.
1,273Â citations
10 May 2016
TL;DR: The security requirements of wireless networks, including their authenticity, confidentiality, integrity, and availability issues, and the state of the art in physical-layer security, which is an emerging technique of securing the open communications environment against eavesdropping attacks at the physical layer are discussed.
Abstract: Due to the broadcast nature of radio propagation, the wireless air interface is open and accessible to both authorized and illegitimate users. This completely differs from a wired network, where communicating devices are physically connected through cables and a node without direct association is unable to access the network for illicit activities. The open communications environment makes wireless transmissions more vulnerable than wired communications to malicious attacks, including both the passive eavesdropping for data interception and the active jamming for disrupting legitimate transmissions. Therefore, this paper is motivated to examine the security vulnerabilities and threats imposed by the inherent open nature of wireless communications and to devise efficient defense mechanisms for improving the wireless network security. We first summarize the security requirements of wireless networks, including their authenticity, confidentiality, integrity, and availability issues. Next, a comprehensive overview of security attacks encountered in wireless networks is presented in view of the network protocol architecture, where the potential security threats are discussed at each protocol layer. We also provide a survey of the existing security protocols and algorithms that are adopted in the existing wireless network standards, such as the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, and the long-term evolution (LTE) systems. Then, we discuss the state of the art in physical-layer security, which is an emerging technique of securing the open communications environment against eavesdropping attacks at the physical layer. Several physical-layer security techniques are reviewed and compared, including information-theoretic security, artificial-noise-aided security, security-oriented beamforming, diversity-assisted security, and physical-layer key generation approaches. Since a jammer emitting radio signals can readily interfere with the legitimate wireless users, we also introduce the family of various jamming attacks and their countermeasures, including the constant jammer, intermittent jammer, reactive jammer, adaptive jammer, and intelligent jammer. Additionally, we discuss the integration of physical-layer security into existing authentication and cryptography mechanisms for further securing wireless networks. Finally, some technical challenges which remain unresolved at the time of writing are summarized and the future trends in wireless security are discussed.
948Â citations
07 Nov 2002
TL;DR: This paper proposes a scheme named DCF+, which is compatible with DCF, to enhance the performance of reliable transport protocol over WLAN and introduces an analytical model to compute the saturated throughput of WLAN.
Abstract: IEEE 802.11 medium access control (MAC) is proposed to support asynchronous and time bounded delivery of radio data packets in infrastructure and ad hoc networks. The basis of the IEEE 802.11 WLAN MAC protocol is a distributed coordination function (DCF), which is a carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) with a binary slotted exponential back-off scheme. Since IEEE 802.11 MAC has its own characteristics that are different from other wireless MAC protocols, the performance of reliable transport protocol over 802.11 needs further study. This paper proposes a scheme named DCF+, which is compatible with DCF, to enhance the performance of reliable transport protocol over WLAN. To analyze the performance of DCF and DCF+, this paper also introduces an analytical model to compute the saturated throughput of WLAN. Compared with other models, this model is shown to be able to predict the behavior of 802.11 more accurately. Moreover, DCF+ is able to improve the performance of TCP over WLAN, which is verified by modeling and elaborate simulation results.
864Â citations
References
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TL;DR: Undergraduate and graduate classes in computer networks and wireless communications; undergraduate classes in discrete mathematics, data structures, operating systems and programming languages.
Abstract: Undergraduate and graduate classes in computer networks and wireless communications; undergraduate classes in discrete mathematics, data structures, operating systems and programming languages. Also give lectures to both undergraduate-and graduate-level network classes and mentor undergraduate and graduate students for class projects.
6,991Â citations
TL;DR: The busy-tone multiple-access mode is introduced and analyzed as a natural extension of CSMA to eliminate the hidden-terminal problem and results show that BTMA with hidden terminals performs almost as well as CSMA without hidden terminals.
Abstract: We consider a population of terminals communicating with a central station over a packet-switched multiple-access radio channel. The performance of carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) [1] used as a method for multiplexing these terminals is highly dependent on the ability of each terminal to sense the carrier of any other transmission on the channel. Many situations exist in which some terminals are "hidden" from each other (either because they are out-of-sight or out-of-range). In this paper we show that the existence of hidden terminals significantly degrades the performance of CSMA. Furthermore, we introduce and analyze the busy-tone multiple-access (BTMA) mode as a natural extension of CSMA to eliminate the hidden-terminal problem. Numerical results giving the bandwidth utilization and packet delays are shown, illustrating that BTMA with hidden terminals performs almost as well as CSMA without hidden terminals.
1,754Â citations
15 Oct 1996
TL;DR: This paper proposes an adaptive contention window mechanism, which dynamically selects the optimal backoff window according to the estimate of the number of contending stations, and shows that this technique leads to stable behavior, and it outperforms the standard protocol when the network load and theNumber of mobile stations are high.
Abstract: The IEEE 802.11 protocol for wireless local area networks adopts a CSMA/CA protocol with exponential backoff as medium access control technique. As the throughput performance of such a scheme becomes critical when the number of mobile stations increases, in this paper we propose an adaptive contention window mechanism, which dynamically selects the optimal backoff window according to the estimate of the number of contending stations. We show that this technique leads to stable behavior, and it outperforms the standard protocol when the network load and the number of mobile stations are high. We also investigate the CSMA/CA with the optional RTS/CTS technique, and we show that our adaptive technique reaches better performance only when the packet size is short. Finally, the performance of a system environment with hidden terminals show that the RTS/CTS mechanism, which can also be used in conjunction with the adaptive contention window mechanism, provides significant improvements.
646Â citations
TL;DR: A simple analytical model is presented to compute the saturation throughput performance in the presence of a finite number of terminals and in the assumption of ideal channel conditions, which shows that the model is extremely accurate in predicting the system throughput.
Abstract: To satisfy the emerging need of wireless data communications, the IEEE is currently standardizing the 802.11 protocol for wireless local area networks. This standard adopts a CSMA/CA medium access control protocol with exponential backoff. We present a simple analytical model to compute the saturation throughput performance in the presence of a finite number of terminals and in the assumption of ideal channel conditions. The model applies to both basic and request-to-send/clear-to-send (RTS/CTS) access mechanisms. Comparison with simulation results shows that the model is extremely accurate in predicting the system throughput.
466Â citations
01 Sep 1994
TL;DR: An overview of the wireless data field is presented, emphasizing three major elements: technologies utilized in existing and currently planned wireless data services, issues related to the performance of these systems, and discernible trends in the continuing development of wireless data systems.
Abstract: Wireless data services and systems represent a rapidly growing and increasingly important segment of the communications industry. In the paper the authors present an overview of this field, emphasizing three major elements: (1) technologies utilized in existing and currently planned wireless data services, (2) issues related to the performance of these systems, and (3) discernible trends in the continuing development of wireless data systems. While the wireless data industry is becoming increasingly diverse and fragmented, one can identify a few mainstreams which relate directly to users requirement for data services. On one hand, there are requirements for relatively low-speed data services supporting mobile users over wide geographical areas, as provided by mobile data networks. On the other hand, there are requirements for high-speed data services in local areas, as provided by wireless LANs. The system-level issues are somewhat different for these two categories of services, and this has led to different technology choices in the two domains, which the authors discuss in the paper. >
359Â citations