"Achieving High Performance and Fairness in Multihop Wireless Access Networks"€, wins funding from Cisco Systems, Inc.

ECE is pleased to announce that Dr. Ed Knightly has been awarded a gift for 2 years by Cisco, a pioneer and worldwide leader in Internet and networking services and products.

Research Project Abstract

Through recent analyses of the results of an urban mesh network deployment, Knightly's team has observed that the IEEE 802.11 standard for Wireless Local Access Networks, Distributed Coordination Function (DCF), can encounter significant unfairness.  Network nodes obtain substantial throughput degradation with each additional hop away from the wireline Internet entry point. In some cases, this degradation can be so severe that it leads to near "starvation"€, even with a high-quality wireless channel, leading to unacceptable performance for the users served by the mesh network.

This research contributes to expanding theoretical understanding of this subject and explores fairness algorithms for the predominant mesh architectures under consideration by IEEE 802.11s.The objective is to provide a performance profile independent of spatial location and to achieve both fairness and predictable quality of service.  This will be accomplished through the design, analysis, and implementation of a fairness protocol that operates above the media access algorithm and below the transport layer, to disallow modifications of TCP and media access protocols. In addition to simulations and analytical modeling, two platforms for experimentation are in development:

°   A 20-node mesh network to serve a Houston low-income neighborhood, which consists of fully programmable Linux mesh routers combined with off-the-shelf IEEE 802.11 cards and high gain antennas.

°    A powerful general hardware purpose platform that allows experimentation with different MAC functions in support of improved fairness - if analysis indicates this as promising.

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