619246
The impact of multihop wireless channel on TCP performance
This paper studies TCP performance in a stationary multihop wireless network using IEEE 802.11 for channel access control. We first show that, given a specific network topology and flow patterns, there exists an optimal window size W* at which TCP achieves the highest throughput via maximum spatial reuse of the shared wireless channel. However, TCP grows its window size much larger than W* leading to throughput reduction. We then explain the TCP throughput decrease using our observations and analysis of the packet loss in an overloaded multihop wireless network. We find out that the network overload is typically first signified by packet drops due to wireless link-layer contention, rather than buffer overflow-induced losses observed in the wired Internet. As the offered load increases, the probability of packet drops due to link contention also increases, and eventually saturates. Unfortunately the link-layer drop probability is insufficient to keep the TCP window size around W'*. We model and analyze the link contention behavior, based on which we propose link RED that fine-tunes the link-layer packet dropping probability to stabilize the TCP window size around W*. We further devise adaptive pacing to better coordinate channel access along the packet forwarding path. Our simulations demonstrate 5 to 30 percent improvement of TCP throughput using the proposed two techniques.
1236934
A Packet Scheduling Approach to QoS Support in Multihop Wireless Networks
Providing packet-level quality of service (QoS) is critical to support both rate-sensitive and delay-sensitive applications in bandwidth-constrained, shared-channel, multihop wireless networks. Packet scheduling has been a very popular paradigm to ensure minimum throughput and bounded delay access for packet flows. This work describes a packet scheduling approach to QoS provisioning in multihop wireless networks. Besides minimum throughput and delay bounds for each flow, our scheduling disciplines seek to achieve fair and maximum allocation of the shared wireless channel bandwidth. However, these two criteria can potentially be in conflict in a generic-topology multihop wireless network where a single logical channel is shared among multiple contending flows and spatial reuse of the channel bandwidth is possible. In this paper, we propose a new scheduling model that addresses this conflict. The main results of this paper are the following: (a) a two-tier service model that provides a minimum “fair” allocation of the channel bandwidth for each packet flow and additionally maximizes spatial reuse of bandwidth, (b) an ideal centralized packet scheduling algorithm that realizes the above service model, and (c) a practical distributed backoff-based channel contention mechanism that approximates the ideal service within the framework of the CSMA/CA protocol.
23906830
PEAS: a robust energy conserving protocol for long-lived sensor networks
Small, inexpensive sensors with limited memory, computing power and short battery lifetimes are turning into reality. Due to adverse conditions such as high noise levels, extreme humidity or temperatures, or even destructions from unfriendly entities, sensor node failures may become norms rather than exceptions in real environments. To be practical, sensor networks must last for much longer times than that of individual nodes, and have yet to be robust against potentially frequent node failures. This paper presents the design of PEAS, a simple protocol that can build a long-lived sensor network and maintain robust operations using large quantities of economical, short-lived sensor nodes. PEAS extends system functioning time by keeping only a necessary set of sensors working and putting the rest into sleep mode. Sleeping ones wake up now and then, probing the local environment and replacing failed ones. The sleeping periods are self-adjusted dynamically, so as to keep the sensors' wakeup rate roughly constant, thus adapting to high node densities.
8338982
Self-coordinating localized fair queueing in wireless ad hoc networks
Distributed fair queueing in a multihop, wireless ad hoc network is challenging for several reasons. First, the wireless channel is shared among multiple contending nodes in a spatial locality. Location-dependent channel contention complicates the fairness notion. Second, the sender of a flow does not have explicit information regarding the contending flows originated from other nodes. Fair queueing over ad hoc networks is a distributed scheduling problem by nature. Finally, the wireless channel capacity is a scarce resource. Spatial channel reuse, i.e., simultaneous transmissions of flows that do not interfere with each other, should be encouraged whenever possible. In this paper, we reexamine the fairness notion in an ad hoc network using a graph-theoretic formulation and extract the fairness requirements that an ad hoc fair queueing algorithm should possess. To meet these requirements, we propose maximize-local-minimum fair queueing (MLM-FQ), a novel distributed packet scheduling algorithm where local schedulers self-coordinate their scheduling decisions and collectively achieve fair bandwidth sharing. We then propose enhanced MLM-FQ (EMLM-FQ) to further improve the spatial channel reuse and limit the impact of inaccurate scheduling information resulted from collisions. EMLM-FQ achieves statistical short-term throughput and delay bounds over the shared wireless channel. Analysis and extensive simulations confirm the effectiveness and efficiency of our self-coordinating localized design in providing global fair channel access in wireless ad hoc networks.
16187298
DIRAC: a software-based wireless router system
Routers are expected to play an important role in the IP-based wireless data network. Although a substantial number of techniques have been proposed to improve wireless network performance under dynamic wireless channel conditions and host mobility, a system support framework is still missing. In this paper, we describe DIRAC, a software-based router system that is designed for wireless networks to facilitate the implementation and evaluation of various channel-adaptive and mobility-aware protocols. DIRAC adopts a distributed architecture that is composed of two parts: a Router Core (RC) shared by the wireless subnets, and a Router Agent (RA) at each access point/base station. RAs expose wireless link-layer information to the RC and enforce the control commands issued by the RC. This approach allows the router to make adaptive decisions based on link-layer information feedback. It also permits the router to enforce its policies (e.g., policing) more effectively through underlying link-layer mechanisms. As showcases, we implement under DIRAC the prototypes of three wireless network services: link-layer assisted fast handover, channel-adaptive scheduling, and link-layer enforced policing. Our implementation and experiments show that our distributed wireless router provides a flexible framework, which enables advanced network-layer wireless services that are adaptive to channel conditions and host mobility.
11410811
Fair scheduling in wireless packet networks
Fair scheduling of delay and rate-sensitive packet flows over a wireless channel is not addressed effectively by most contemporary wireline fair-scheduling algorithms because of two unique characteristics of wireless media: (1) bursty channel errors and (2) location-dependent channel capacity and errors. Besides, in packet cellular networks, the base station typically performs the task of packet scheduling for both downlink and uplink flows in a cell; however, a base station has only a limited knowledge of the arrival processes of uplink flows. We propose a new model for wireless fair-scheduling based on an adaptation of fluid fair queueing (FFQ) to handle location-dependent error bursts. We describe an ideal wireless fair-scheduling algorithm which provides a packetized implementation of the fluid mode, while assuming full knowledge of the current channel conditions. For this algorithm, we derive the worst-case throughput and delay bounds. Finally, we describe a practical wireless scheduling algorithm which approximates the ideal algorithm. Through simulations, we show that the algorithm achieves the desirable properties identified in the wireless FFQ model.
7682350
Incremental genetic K-means algorithm and its application in gene expression data analysis
BackgroundIn recent years, clustering algorithms have been effectively applied in molecular biology for gene expression data analysis. With the help of clustering algorithms such as K-means, hierarchical clustering, SOM, etc, genes are partitioned into groups based on the similarity between their expression profiles. In this way, functionally related genes are identified. As the amount of laboratory data in molecular biology grows exponentially each year due to advanced technologies such as Microarray, new efficient and effective methods for clustering must be developed to process this growing amount of biological data.ResultsIn this paper, we propose a new clustering algorithm, Incremental Genetic K-means Algorithm (IGKA). IGKA is an extension to our previously proposed clustering algorithm, the Fast Genetic K-means Algorithm (FGKA). IGKA outperforms FGKA when the mutation probability is small. The main idea of IGKA is to calculate the objective value Total Within-Cluster Variation (TWCV) and to cluster centroids incrementally whenever the mutation probability is small. IGKA inherits the salient feature of FGKA of always converging to the global optimum. C program is freely available at http://database.cs.wayne.edu/proj/FGKA/index.htm.ConclusionsOur experiments indicate that, while the IGKA algorithm has a convergence pattern similar to FGKA, it has a better time performance when the mutation probability decreases to some point. Finally, we used IGKA to cluster a yeast dataset and found that it increased the enrichment of genes of similar function within the cluster.
30892527
On Design and Implementation of Adaptive Data Classification Scheme for DSM Systems
Distributed Shared Memory (DSM) environment is built by using specific softwares, to combine a number of computer hardware resources into one computing environment. Such environment not only provides an easy way to execute parallel applications, but also combines resources to speedup execution of these applications. DSM systems need to maintain data consistency in memory, what usually leads to communication overhead. Therefore, there exist a number of strategies that can be used to overcome this overhead and improve overall performance. Prefetching strategies have been proven to show great performance in DSM systems, since they can reduce data access communication latencies from remote nodes. However, these strategies also transfer unnecessary prefetching pages to remote nodes. In this research paper, we focus on the analysis of data access pattern during execution of parallel applications. We propose an Adaptive Data Classification scheme to improve prefetching strategy, with the goal to improve overall performance. Adaptive Data Classification scheme classifies data according to the access behavior of pages, so that home node uses past history access patterns of remote nodes to decide whether it needs to transfer related pages to remote nodes. From experimental results, our method can improve the performance of prefetching strategies in DSM systems.
1954441
A Sufficient and Necessary Condition for the Consistency of XML DTDs
Recently, XML has emerged as a standard for representing and exchanging data on the World Wide Web. As a result, there is a trend of increasing amount of XML documents that publish information on the Web from various data sources. A Document Type Definition (DTD) describes the structure of a set of similar XML documents and serves as the schema for XML documents. The World Wide Web Consortium has defined the grammar for specifying DTDs; however, even a syntactically correct DTD might be inconsistent in the sense that there exist no XML documents conforming to the structure imposed by the DTD. In this paper, we formalize the notion of the consistency of DTDs, and identify a sufficient and necessary condition for a DTD to be consistent.
17978140
Completeness and realizability: conditions for automatic generation of workflows
In recent years, workflow technology has greatly facilitated business process modeling and reengineering in information systems. On one hand, the separation of an application's control structure from the implementation of its task programs simplifies and speeds up application development. On the other hand, the run-time system assists users in coordinating and scheduling tasks of a business process. As a result, the cost of doing business is reduced, and business enterprises become more responsive to new business requirements and opportunities, hence, become more competitive in the market. Several formal methods have been proposed for specifying and modeling workflows. However, most workflows are designed manually, which becomes a time-consuming and error-prone procedure when a workflow involves hundreds or thousands of task programs. A recent approach is to generate workflow automatically from a task library and a specification of the desired outcome. In this paper, we define the notions of positive and negative dependency graphs for a task library to represent the dependencies among tasks in the library. Based on these dependencies, we identified sufficient conditions for a task library to be complete, and the conditions for a workflow postcondition to be realizable from a task library. We also identified a sufficient and necessary condition for the completeness of a class of task libraries, called S-task libraries.
896953
Sequential Aggregate Signatures and Multisignatures Without Random Oracles
We present the first aggregate signature, the first multisignature, and the first verifiably encrypted signature provably secure without random oracles. Our constructions derive from a novel application of a recent signature scheme due to Waters. Signatures in our aggregate signature scheme are sequentially constructed, but knowledge of the order in which messages were signed is not necessary for verification. The aggregate signatures obtained are shorter than Lysyanskaya et al. sequential aggregates and can be verified more efficiently than Boneh et al. aggregates. We also consider applications to secure routing and proxy signatures.