Enhancing Performance in Wireless-Fibre Networks

Candidature Proposal by: Wan Hafiza Wan Hassan (3873128)

Supervisor: Prof. Mike FAULKNER Co Supervisor: Dr. Horace KING

Centre for Telecommunication and Microelectronics, Faculty of Health, Engineering and Science, Victoria University

Table of Contents
Table of Contents.............................................................................. ii List of Figures.............................................................................................. iii List of Tables................................................................................................... iii 1.0 2.0 3.0 Research Title..............................................................................................................1 Introduction .................................................................................................................1 Literature Review ........................................................................................................2 3.1 3.2 3.3 Fixed Mobile Convergence .....................................................................2 Gigabits Passive Optical Network (GPON) ............................................2 Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs)...............................................3 3.3.1 3.3.2 WLAN Standard Protocol........................................................3 Interference in high density WLANs .......................................4 3.3.2.1 3.3.2.2 3.3.2.3 3.3.2.4 4.0 4.1 4.2 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 7.0 8.0 Adaptive backoff algorithm...............................4 Channel assignment ............................................4 Power control and management.........................5 Observations .......................................................5

Aims of the Research Project ......................................................................................5 Broader Aim ............................................................................................5 Specific Aims ..........................................................................................5 Network Topology...................................................................................5 Properties of GPON.................................................................................6 Proposed Methods ...................................................................................6 Analytical and Simulation Approaches ...................................................6 Basic Requirements .................................................................................6 Software Requirements............................................................................6 Budget Analysis.......................................................................................7

Methods and Experimental Design .............................................................................5

Needs Analysis ............................................................................................................6

Significance: Plain Language Statement .....................................................................7 Timeline....7

References..8 Appendix: Preliminary Simulation............................................................................................................9

ii

List of Figures

Figure 1: Overview of a GPON (downstream transmission) [3] ................................................ 1 Figure 2: Fibre-Wireless Networks ............................................................................................. 1 Figure 3: Upstream transmission of GPON [12]......................................................................... 2 Figure 4: GPON frame format [12]............................................................................................. 3 Figure 5: Mechanism of upstream transmission [12].................................................................. 3 Figure 6 : WLAN Protocol [14] .................................................................................................. 4 Figure 7(a) : Overall Throughput.9 Figure 7(b) : Overall Retransmission Attempts .......................................................................... 9 Figure 7(c): Backoff Slots ...................9 Figure 7(d): Media Access Delay.... 9

List of Tables

Table 1: Research Budget ........................................................................................................... 7 Table 2 : Timeline of the Proposed Research ............................................................................. 7

iii

1.0

Research Title

Enhancing Performance in Wireless-Fibre Network. 2.0 Introduction

Gigabits passive optical network (GPON) is considered a promising candidate for fibre to the home (FTTH) technology to overcome the last kilometre bottleneck in broadband optical access network [1]. Indeed, the Australian Government has chosen GPON as the backhaul network to build a National Broadband Network (NBN) with the FTTH technologies delivering broadband at the speed of nearly 100 Mbps to homes. This approach has the capability to remove active components between the central office, optical line terminal (OLT) and the customer premises, optical node terminal (ONT) with significant reduction in power usage and without a cascade of equipment [2]. GPON implements passive fibre splitters which allow multiple customers to share a single fibre for both upstream and downstream communications, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Overview of a GPON (downstream transmission) [3]

Although GPON is able to meet the bandwidth demand, it does not provide end users with flexibility and mobility [4]. On the other hand, wireless networks provide mobility but have problems supplying the required bandwidth. It is because a wireless channel is shared by many users, all interfering with each other. This kind of problem is more significant in a network which uses distributed coordination to access the channel, such as wireless local area networks. The convergence of optical and wireless technology combines the capacity of optical fibre networks with the mobility of wireless networks [5]. This creates the fibrewireless broadband access networks such as in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Fibre-Wireless Networks

Despite the fibre providing high bandwidth, interference (wireless networks) still limits the performance of this fibre-wireless network as devices have to meet the required bit error rate in their allocated spectrum [6]. Motivated from the above discussion, this research will investigate on how to increase quality of services in the fibre-wireless network, by utilizing the interoperability of these two networks. 1

3.0

Literature Review

3.1 Fixed Mobile Convergence Fixed mobile convergence is a development towards the possibilities of seamless connectivity between fixed and wireless networks. It aims to provide the best quadruplet services (video, voice, data and mobility) to end users. The integration of fibre and wireless connectivity is one of the popular trends of this convergence. The following is the information on the proposed integration methods have been found in the literature review up to now. Various techniques have been proposed to converge optical networks and WiMAX technologies [4], [7]-[10]. In [10], the authors classified the broadband access technologies proposed by [9] into three significant categories: independent, hybrid and radio-over-fibre. The independent architecture is the most intuitive but it is expected to be costly since it requires two independent devices, an optical network unit (ONU) and a WiMAX base station. The hybrid architecture reduces cost because it integrates the ONU and the WiMAX base station into a single device. It operates as a gateway connecting to both optical and WiMAX networks. The radio-over-fibre scheme uses an analog optical link to transmit radio signals between the central head end and a remote antenna unit. Although it has low attenuation loss and reduced power consumption, it is prone to noise and distortion due to the analog nature of its transmission [9]. In addition, the authors in [5] doubted the scheme would be practical because WIMAX has a metropolitan reach where as FTTH optical network brings fibre closer to the end users. WIMAX is not the right choice for realizing short distance wireless access inside offices and homes. As a result, [5] and [11] proposed to integrate the optical networks with a mesh connected wireless local area networks (WLAN). Radio-over-fibre has disadvantage of poor media access control (MAC) because of the additional delay imposed by the optical network. Therefore, in this research I propose to use a hybrid scheme with a separate MAC for the optical and wireless link. The protocol translation will take place at their interface. As such, wireless MAC frames do not have to travel along the optical fibre to be processed at the central office but only traverse the WLAN. Hence, the negative impact of fibre propagation delay on the network throughput can be avoided. This conclusion is also supported in [5]. 3.2 Gigabits Passive Optical Network (GPON) The concept of a GPON involves the use of passive fibre splitters which allow multiple customers to share a single fibre for both upstream and downstream communications. The downstream throughput is broadcast to all ONTs/ONUs and each frame is labelled with the address of its target ONTs/ONUs as depicted in Figure 1 [3].

Figure 3: Upstream transmission of GPON [12]

Figure 4: GPON frame format [12]

Considering the fact that all frames are broadcast to all ONTs/ONUs, each user can exploit the traffic activity of other users. Figure 3 shows the upstream transmission of GPON using time division multiple access. The OLT at the central office has full control of upstream transmission by allocating fixed or variable time slots to each ONU. This transmission schedule is broadcast to all ONUs in the downstream control frame (US BW Map) as shown in Figure 4. During a given slot, one particular ONU is permitted to transmit while the rest must turn off their lasers [5].

Figure 5: Mechanism of upstream transmission [12]

Figure 5 illustrates the mechanism of upstream transmission. Prior to determining the transmission schedule, each ONU uses its upstream control frame (DBRu) to update the OLT on how many packets are waiting in its buffer [13]. The mechanisms of downstream and upstream transmissions discussed above are the key points in this research which will be further discussed in the methodology section. 3.3 3.3.1 Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs)

WLAN Standard Protocol Wireless local area network (WLAN) is a type of network in which users can be connected to a local area network via a wireless channel over a distance of 60 metres or more. Each user must gain access to the wireless channel in a controlled manner, using the medium access control (MAC). It is based on the carrier sense multiple access with a collision avoidance protocol [14]. This protocol will only allow a node to transmit if the channel is

unoccupied for a period of time consisting of a fixed and random component [15]. The latter is recognized as backoff time which is uniformly chosen from the backoff window (known as

Figure 6 : WLAN Protocol [14]

contention window, (CW)) within the interval (0,CW), see Figure 6. The window size begins with CWmin and will be doubled whenever there is a packet collision and automatically foreseen a retransmission. The absence of acknowledgment frame (ACK) from the receiver indicates a corrupted packet (collision) [16] . From the above discussion, it is observed that the backoff time lengthens as the number of competing nodes increases. Consequently, throughput reduces and delay increases. 3.3.2 Interference in high density WLANs Highly dense deployments of WLANs may result in significant degradation of throughputs due to the inherent increases in delay and interference [17]. These problems are very apparent in dense multistorey dwellings and offices. Thus, many researchers have worked on techniques to mitigate the interference and minimize the transmission delay. From the literature, those related techniques can be classified into three types as listed below. 3.3.2.1 Adaptive backoff algorithm There are two major drawbacks found in the standard IEEE 802.11 backoff algorithm. First, the contention window is increased upon transmission failure regardless of the cause of failure. Second, after a successful packet transmission, the contention window is reset to CWmin, thus forgetting its knowledge of the current congestion level in the network [18]. Hence, modifications have been done in [16], [18] and [19], to modify the standard backoff algorithm. They proposed algorithms to update the contention window size after each transmission attempt based on an estimated number of active stations. Work in [19] used the observed number of busy periods to estimate the number of active stations while [16] used the length of idle duration and [18] introduced online measurements of the number of sources. All the proposed techniques seemed to outperform the standard but at the cost of increasing complexity. 3.3.2.2 Channel assignment The high density of access point (APs) deployments in the WLAN environment and the low number of available channels have inspired researchers to work on channel assignment algorithms that reduce co-channel and adjacent channel interference [20] - [23]. Research in [22] and [23] proposed channel assignments that minimized the total interference between APs and maximized the signal to interference ratio at each station. In addition, the authors in [20] assumed every AP will broadcast the number of nodes associated to all neighbouring APs. This information is used by every AP to simultaneously perform an algorithm in order to choose the best channel to get maximum throughput. In contrast, [21] proposed an asynchronous channel assignment that simplified the algorithm in [20]. The best channel for an AP to choose is defined as the channel that has the least number of associated neighbour

nodes. In comparison to [20], this approach improves the convergence time but the total throughput in a static environment is lower. 3.3.2.3 Power control and management
The IEEE 802.11 MAC assigns the same transmission power to all nodes regardless of any condition that could lead to increase interference. Hence, power control has been extensively studied in the literature [24]-[27]. Power control should ensure no link asymmetry is introduced in the network which would lead to throughput starvation for some of the nodes. As a solution, a power control algorithm which jointly optimized the transmit power and the carrier sensing parameter in the MAC is proposed [25]. This algorithm allocates higher transmit power to APs with more associated nodes or a worse channel condition. [26] introduced a status table which needs to be continuously updated by each node in the network to keep some information about their neighbouring nodes. This scheme allows new transmissions as long as it does not interfere with the ongoing transmission but at the price of some computational complexity and extra energy consumption.

3.3.2.4 Observations It is observed that most of the techniques reviewed above require knowledge of the activities on each of the neighbouring APs in order to perform the proposed algorithms. Hence, this research work will further enhance the above techniques by exploiting additional information from the GPON. This will be further discussed in the methodology section. 4.0 4.1 Aims of the Research Project Broader Aim

To increase the capacity of wireless local area network (WLAN) using Gigabits Passive Optical Network (GPON) as a backhaul and provide optimal throughputs and minimal delay in a high density environment. 4.2 Specific Aims 1) To analyse the performance of the existing WLAN (IEEE 802.11n) and identify the contributing factors that influence their performance. 2) To exploit the knowledge available in GPON network to improve the performance of the WLAN. 3) To enhance current techniques of interference mitigation in high density WLAN deployments by exploiting the knowledge gained in objective 2. 4) To evaluate the enhanced techniques in different interference scenarios. 5.0 Methods and Experimental Design

5.1 Network Topology This research focuses on hybrid architecture of GPON and WLAN as shown in Figure 2. It is assumed that each of ONT of the GPON backhaul network is directly connected with the WLAN access point as discussed in section 3.1. This network topology will introduce a high density WLAN environment. Even though GPON can provide high bandwidth, the interference in the wireless network still limits the overall performance [6]. Hence, this research work will focus on mitigating the interference by exploiting GPON properties.

5.2

Properties of GPON 1) In the downstream transmission, all frames from the OLT are broadcast to all ONTs/APs. Therefore, each user can exploit the information about the other users activity. 2) In the upstream direction, each user will be granted a time slot for transmission. This transmission schedule will be broadcast to all ONTs in the downstream control frame. Hence, the research work will develop techniques to exploit this full duplex transmission.

5.3 Proposed Methods From the literature review, there are at least 3 techniques which can improve the throughput of the wireless component of the hybrid GPON-WLAN network. 1) Adaptive backoff To adaptively tune the backoff slot for each of the nodes. 2) Dynamic channel assignment To dynamically assign the best channel for each AP. 3) Power control To control the assigned transmission power to each of the nodes. In general, it is observed that all the techniques discussed above require the information of the expected traffic loading in neighbouring nodes. In this research work, each AP has the advantage of knowing the downstream data intended for its neighbouring APs. Also, the time slot is known for all APs. This information will be used to develop the algorithms for improving throughput and reducing delay. 5.4 Analytical and Simulation Approaches The proposed algorithms will be developed by analytical approaches, extensive simulations and numerical analysis using OPNET and MATLAB software. Statistical parameters such as throughput and delay will be used to evaluate the performance of the proposed schemes in different interference scenarios. This will take into account transmission ranges of each AP, inter-AP distances as well as the spatial topologies. 6.0 Needs Analysis

6.1 Basic Requirements Office space with high performance personal computer and high speed internet access, library facilities with accessibility to scientific databases such as IEEE Xplore, ACM and Elsevier. Other facilities such as printing, scanning and photocopying are also required for documentation purposes. 6.2 Software Requirements The required software includes OPNET, MATLAB, MS Office, MS Visio, LaTex and Endnote. The Faculty of Health, Engineering and Science and CTME have the required facilities, software and equipment listed above.

6.3 Budget Analysis Table 1 specifies the budget which require financial support from the university.
No 1
Table 1: Research Budget

Item

Cost ($ AUD)

License for OPNET Software -$4,300/year International Conference - Registration Fees :$1,000 -Accomandation:$1,000 -Logistics and travel insurance:$ 3,000 Local Conference Total $12,900

$5,000 $1,000 $18,900

7.0

Throughput improvement and interference mitigation of wireless access in fibre-wireless networks will significantly contribute to better QoS, network reliability and performance. The user experience will be improved by integrating the capacity of optical fibre with the mobility of wireless networks. Consequently, people will enjoy communicating from home instead of going through the hassle of commuting to anywhere such as work, school or hospital. Indirectly it will contribute to a reduction in fuel consumption and thereby protect the environment [5].

Significance: Plain Language Statement

8.0

Timeline
Table 2 : Timeline of the Proposed Research Dec 2010- Nov2011 Dec 2011- Nov 2012 Task Name Literature Review *Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Dec 2012- Nov 2013 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

Define research problems and proposal preparations. Performance Analysis of IEEE 802.11 and preliminary simulations (Paper 1 submitted to ICICS 2011) Analysis and development of modified adaptive backoff technique (Paper 2) Analysis and development of modified dynamic channel assignment (Paper 3) Analysis and development of modified power control (Paper 4) Performance Evaluation and Optimisation (Paper 5) Thesis Write Up

*NOTE: Q1 Dec - Feb; Q2 Mac - May; Q3 June - August; Q4 September November

References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] C.H.Yeh, et al., Recent Research on Fibre Access Systems for FTTH Networks in Taiwan, in IEEE LEOS NEWSLETTER, p. 15-19, April 2008 Alcatel-Lucent, Converging Voice,Data and Video in the Enterprise using GPON Application Note, p. 1-6, 2009. M.Scott, Protocols for Fibre to the Home, Doctoral Training Centre , 2010. M.Milosavljevic, et al, Advanced PON topologies with Wireless Connectivity, in Proc. IEEE ICTON, 2009. M.Maier, N.Ghazisaidi, and M.Reisslein, The Audacity of Fibre-Wireless (FiWi) Networks, AccessNets,: p. 16-35, 2009. Z.Zheng and J.Wang, A Study of Network Throughput Gain in Optical-Wireless (FiWi) Networks Subject to Peer-to-peer Communications, in Proc. IEEE ICC, 2009. B.O.Obele and M.Kang, Fixed Mobile Convergence: A Self-Aware QoS Architecture for Converging WiMAX and GEPON Access Networks, in The Second International Conference on Next Generation Mobile Applications,Services and Technologies., 2008. M.Milosavljevic, et al., Interoperability of GPON and WiMAX for Network Capacity Enhancement and Resilience, Journal of Optical Networking, 8(3): p. 285-294, 2009. G.Shen, R.S.Tucker, and C.J.Chae, Fixed Mobile Convergence Architectures for Broadband Access: Integration of EPON and WIMAX, IEEE Communications Magazine, 45(8): p. 44-50, 2007. Y.Yan, H.Yu, and L.Dittmann, Wireless Channel Condition Aware Scheduling Algorithm for Hybrid Optical/Wireless Networks, AccessNets, LNICST6: p. 397-409, 2009. S.Sarkar, S.Dixit, and B.Mukherjee, Hybrid Wireless-Optical Broadband-Access Network (WOBAN): A Review of Relevant Challenges, Journal of Lightwave Technology, 25(11): p. 3329-3340, 2007. Huawei Technologies, GPON Fundamentals. http://www.huawei.com. (accessed on 20 January 2011) ITU-T, G.984.3:Gigabit-capable Pasive Optical Networks (GPON):Transmission Convergence Layer Specification, March 2008. IEEE 802.11, Standard for Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications, 2007. B.Bianchi, Performance Analysis of the IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, 18(3): p. 535-547, 2000. F.Cali, M.Conti, and E.Gregori, IEEE 802.11 Protocol: Design and Performance Evaluation of an Adaptive Backoff Mechanism, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, 18(9): p. 17741786, 2000. M.Drieberg, Channel Assignment Strategies for Throughput Enhancement in High Density Wireless Local Area Networks, Victoria University, 2010. M.Ibrahim and S.Alouf, Design and Analysis of an Adaptive Backoff Algorithm for IEEE 802.11 DCF Mechanism,. Networking 2006, p. 184-196, 2006. G.Bianchi, L.Fratta, and M.Oliveri, Performance Evaluation and Enhancement of the CSMA/CA MAC Protocol for 802.11 Wireless LANs, in IEEE Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications, 1996. PIMRC'96, 1996. H.Luo and N.K.Shankaranarayanan, A Distributed Dynamic Channel Allocation Technique for Throughput Improvement in a Dense WLAN Environment, in Proc. IEEE ICASSP, 2004. M.Drieberg, et al., An Asynchronous Distributed Dynamic Channel Assignment Scheme for Dense WLANs, in Proc. ICC, 2008. R.Akl. and A.Arepally, Dynamic Channel Assignment in IEEE 802.11 Networks, in Proc. IEEE International Conf. on Portable Information Devices, 2007. M.Haidar, et al., Channel Assignment in an IEEE 802.11 WLAN based on Signal-to-Interference Ratio, in Proc. IEEE CCECE , 2008. J.Nie, J.Parr, and S.McClean, Power Control of Control Frames in IEEE 802.11 Networks, ELSEVIER International Journal of Electronics and Communications, 65 (2011): p. 165-172, 2010. V.P.Mhatre, K.Papagiannaki, and F.Baccelli, Interference Mitigation Through Power Control in High Density 802.11 WLANs, in Proc. INFOCOM, 2007. P.Li, X.Geng, and Y.Fang, An Adaptive Power Controlled MAC Protocol for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, 8(1): p. 226-233, 2009. Y.Zhu and V.Leung, Efficient Power Management for Infrastructure IEEE 802.11 WLANs, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, 9(7): p. 2196-2205, 2010.

Appendix: Preliminary Simulation A preliminary simulation has been carried out to validate the effects of increasing the number of access points (APs) with multiple associated users. WLAN environment is modelled using OPNET software with continuous packets transmission at the data rate of 11 Mbps. Each access point has 5 associated users. As the number of access points increased from one to four, it is observed the overall throughput increased but at the price of increasing media access delay, backoff slots and number of retransmissions as shown in Figure 7(a)-7(d) respectively. The increase of media access delay, backoff slots and numbers of retransmissions will be used to validate the existence of interference in the simulated environment. However, the overall throughput is still increased because the lost packets are automatically compensated with retransmission attempts. It is concluded the interference in this scenario is not severe due to smaller numbers of APs. The degradation of overall throughput is expected if the number of APs is greatly increased and the AP services areas start overlapping both vertically and horizontally.

Figure 7(a): Overall Throughput

Figure 7(b): Overall Retransmission Attempts

Figure 7(c): Backoff Slot

Figure 7(d): Media Access Delay