2961249
The capacity of wireless networks
When n identical randomly located nodes, each capable of transmitting at W bits per second and using a fixed range, form a wireless network, the throughput /spl lambda/(n) obtainable by each node for a randomly chosen destination is /spl Theta/(W//spl radic/(nlogn)) bits per second under a noninterference protocol. If the nodes are optimally placed in a disk of unit area, traffic patterns are optimally assigned, and each transmission's range is optimally chosen, the bit-distance product that can be transported by the network per second is /spl Theta/(W/spl radic/An) bit-meters per second. Thus even under optimal circumstances, the throughput is only /spl Theta/(W//spl radic/n) bits per second for each node for a destination nonvanishingly far away. Similar results also hold under an alternate physical model where a required signal-to-interference ratio is specified for successful receptions. Fundamentally, it is the need for every node all over the domain to share whatever portion of the channel it is utilizing with nodes in its local neighborhood that is the reason for the constriction in capacity. Splitting the channel into several subchannels does not change any of the results. Some implications may be worth considering by designers. Since the throughput furnished to each user diminishes to zero as the number of users is increased, perhaps networks connecting smaller numbers of users, or featuring connections mostly with nearby neighbors, may be more likely to be find acceptance.
18907580
A Tutorial on Some New Methods for Performance Evaluation of Queueing Networks
In the 1970's, Baskett, Chandy, Muntz and Palacios, Kelly, and others, generalized the earlier results of Jackson (1957) and obtained explicit solutions for the steady-state distributions of some restricted queueing networks. These queueing networks are called "product-form networks," due to the structure of their explicit solutions. The class of such tractable networks is quite small, however. For example, if customers require different mean service times on different revisits to the same server, or if customers on a later visit are given higher priority, then very little is known concerning whether the network is even stable or what form the steady-state distribution has if it exists. Recently, some new methods have been developed for establishing the stability of a system and for obtaining bounds on key performance measures such as mean delay, mean number in system, or mean throughput. Since they are based on the well-developed computational tool of linear programming, these methods can be widely employed in diverse applications in communication networks, computer systems, and manufacturing systems. We provide a tutorial exposition of some of these recent developments. >
999307
A counterexample in congestion control of wireless networks
One of the triumphs of wireline network research of the last decade has been the casting of the Internet congestion control problem within an optimization framework based on utility functions. Such an approach provides a sound understanding of the underlying stability and fairness issues, as well as a post-facto justification of TCP-like additive-increase multiplicative-decrease (AIMD) algorithms. This paper provides a counter-example showing that the same result cannot be extended to wireless networks, at least not in a straightforward manner.The fundamental difference is that wireless networks are of a broadcast nature. There is no strict notion of a "link," since transmissions from nearby nodes interfere with each other. Using a simple model of interference in wireless networks, a counter-example of a wireless network is presented in which the congestion control mechanism has an unstable equilibrium point at the desired fair solution. Further, ns-2 simulations of this counter-example manifest an oscillatory behavior. Surprisingly, this oscillatory behavior appears to be fairly typical in wireless networks, with most randomly chosen network examples manifesting it. This loss of stability suggests a possible need for the re-design of wireless TCP and wireless queue management to explicitly account for the wireless nature of the effects of interference. wireless interference can make this mechanism unstable. We present counter-example wireless graphs and flow patterns in which the congestion control mechanism fails to remain stable. ns-2 simulations indicate that this loss of stability manifests in practice as oscillatory behavior. Moreover, this oscillatory behavior is fairly typical in wireless networks. This loss of stability suggests a need for the re-design of wireless TCP and wireless queue management to explicitly account for the effects of interference.
16097363
On the guaranteed throughput and efficiency of closed re-entrant lines
A closed network is said to be “guaranteed efficient” if the throughput converges under all non-idling policies to the capacity of the bottlenecks in the network, as the number of trapped customers increases to infinity. We obtain a necessary condition for guaranteed efficiency of closed re-entrant lines. For balanced two-station systems, this necessary condition is almost sufficient, differing from it only by the strictness of an inequality. This near characterization is obtained by studying a special type of virtual station called “alternating visit virtual station”. These special virtual stations allow us to relate the necessary condition to certain indices arising in heavy traffic studies using a Brownian network approximation, as well as to certain policies proposed as being extremal with respect to the asymptotic loss in the throughput. Using the near characterization of guaranteed efficiency we also answer the often pondered question of whether an open network or its closed counterpart has greater throughput - the answer is that neither can assure a greater guaranteed throughput.
769656
Towards an information theory of large networks: an achievable rate region
We study communication networks of arbitrary size and topology and communicating over a general vector discrete memoryless channel (DMC). We propose an information-theoretic constructive scheme for obtaining an achievable rate region in such networks. Many well-known capacity-defining achievable rate regions can be derived as special cases of the proposed scheme. A few such examples are the physically degraded and reversely degraded relay channels, the Gaussian multiple-access channel, and the Gaussian broadcast channel. The proposed scheme also leads to inner bounds for the multicast and allcast capacities. Applying the proposed scheme to a specific wireless network of n nodes located in a region of unit area, we show that a transport capacity of /spl Theta/(n) bit-meters per second (bit-meters/s) is feasible in a certain family of networks, as compared to the best possible transport capacity of /spl Theta/(/spl radic/n) bit-meters/s in Gupta et al. (2000), where the receiver capabilities were limited. Even though the improvement is shown for a specific class of networks, a clear implication is that designing and employing more sophisticated multiuser coding schemes can provide sizable gains in at least some large wireless networks.
8476709
On the /spl theta/-coverage and connectivity of large random networks
Wireless planar networks have been used to model wireless networks in a tradition that dates back to 1961 to the work of E. N. Gilbert. Indeed, the study of connected components in wireless networks was the motivation for his pioneering work that spawned the modern field of continuum percolation theory. Given that node locations in wireless networks are not known, random planar modeling can be used to provide preliminary assessments of important quantities such as range, number of neighbors, power consumption, and connectivity, and issues such as spatial reuse and capacity. In this paper, the problem of connectivity based on nearest neighbors is addressed. The exact threshold function for /spl theta/-coverage is found for wireless networks modeled as n points uniformly distributed in a unit square, with every node connecting to its /spl phi//sub n/ nearest neighbors. A network is called /spl theta/-covered if every node, except those near the boundary, can find one of its /spl phi//sub n/ nearest neighbors in any sector of angle /spl theta/. For all /spl theta//spl isin/(0,2/spl pi/), if /spl phi//sub n/=(1+/spl delta/)log/sub 2/spl pi//2/spl pi/-/spl theta//n, it is shown that the probability of /spl theta/-coverage goes to one as n goes to infinity, for any /spl delta/>0; on the other hand, if /spl phi//sub n/=(1-/spl delta/)log/sub 2/spl pi//2/spl pi/-/spl theta//n, the probability of /spl theta/-coverage goes to zero. This sharp characterization of /spl theta/-coverage is used to show, via further geometric arguments, that the network will be connected with probability approaching one if /spl phi//sub n/=(1+/spl delta/)log/sub 2/n. Connections between these results and the performance analysis of wireless networks, especially for routing and topology control algorithms, are discussed.
7212084
Finding large sticks and potatoes in polygons
We study a class of optimization problems in polygons that seek to compute the "largest" subset of a prescribed type, e.g., a longest line segment ("stick") or a maximum-area triangle or convex body ("potato"). Exact polynomial-time algorithms are known for some of these problems, but their time bounds are high (e.g., O(n7) for the largest convex polygon in a simple n-gon). We devise efficient approximation algorithms for these problems. In particular, we give near-linear time algorithms for a (1 - ∈)-approximation of the biggest stick, an O(1)-approximation of the maximum-area convex body, and a (1 - ∈)-approximation of the maximum-area fat triangle or rectangle. In addition, we give efficient methods for computing large ellipses inside a polygon (whose vertices are a dense sampling of a closed smooth curve). Our algorithms include both deterministic and randomized methods, one of which has been implemented (for computing large area ellipses in a well sampled closed smooth curve).
150407
Infrastructure for the quantum internet
A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Northwestern University (NU) is developing a system for long-distance, high- delity qubit tele-portation. Such a system will be required if future quantum computers are to be linked together into a quantum Internet. This paper presents recent progress that the MIT/NU team has made, beginning with a review of the teleportation architecture and its loss-limited performance analysis.
359856
Curve reconstruction from noisy samples
We present an algorithm to reconstruct a collection of disjoint smooth closed curves from n noisy samples. Our noise model assumes that the samples are obtained by first drawing points on the curves according to a locally uniform distribution followed by a uniform perturbation of each point in the normal direction with a magnitude smaller than the minimum local feature size. The reconstruction is faithful with a probability that approaches 1 as n increases.We expect that our approach can lead to provable algorithms under less restrictive noise models and for handling non-smooth features.
42584661
Minimal Vertex Separators of Chordal Graphs
Chordal graphs form an important and widely studied subclass of perfect graphs. The set of minimal vertex separators constitute an unique class of separators of a chordal graph and capture the structure of the graph. In this paper, we explore the connection between perfect elimination orderings of a chordal graph and its minimal vertex separators. Specifically, we prove a characterization of these separators in terms of the monotone adjacency sets of the vertices of the graph, numbered by the maximum cardinality search (MCS) scheme. This leads to a simple linear-time algorithm to identify the minimal vertex separators of a chordal graph using the MCS scheme. We also introduce the notion of multiplicity of a minimal vertex separator which indicates the number of different pairs of vertices separated by it. We prove a useful property of the lexicographic breadth first scheme (LBFS) that enables us to determine the multiplicities of minimal vertex separators of a chordal graph.
45262024
Some new bounds on the spectral radius of graphs
The eigenvalues of a graph are the eigenvalues of its adjacency matrix. This paper presents some upper and lower bounds on the greatest eigenvalue and a lower bound on the smallest eigenvalue.