Random Access Wireless Networks Research Articles

Crossover times in bipartite networks with activity constraints and time-varying switching rates

In this paper, we study the performance of a bipartite network in which customers arrive at the nodes of the network, but not all nodes are able to serve their customers at all times. Each node can be either active or inactive, and two nodes connected by a bond cannot be active simultaneously. This situation arises in wireless random-access networks where, due to destructive interference, stations that are close to each other cannot use the same frequency band. We consider a model where the network is bipartite, the active nodes switch themselves off at rate 1 and the inactive nodes switch themselves on at a rate that depends on time and on which half of the bipartite network they are in. An inactive node cannot become active when one of the nodes it is connected to by a bond is active. The switching protocol allows the nodes to share activity among each other. In the limit as the activation rate becomes large, we compute the crossover time between the two states where one-half of the network is active and the other half is inactive. This allows us to assess the overall activity of the network depending on the switching protocol. Our results make use of the metastability analysis for hard-core interacting particle models on finite bipartite graphs derived in an earlier paper. They are valid for a large class of bipartite networks, subject to certain assumptions. Proofs rely on a comparison with switching protocols that are not time varying, through coupling techniques.

Remote State Estimation of Nonlinear Systems Over Fading Channels via Recurrent Neural Networks

In this article, we consider the remote state estimation for nonlinear dynamic systems with known linear dynamics and unknown nonlinear perturbations. The nonlinear dynamic plant is monitored by multiple distributed sensors over a random access wireless network with shared common radio channel. We focus on the communication strategy and remote state estimation algorithm design so as to achieve a remote state estimation stability subject to unknown nonlinearities in plant and various wireless impairments, such as multisensor interference, wireless fading, and additive channel noise. By exploiting the additive properties of the physical wireless channels, we propose a novel information fusion over-the-air mechanism to address the signal collision and interference among the sensors. Utilizing the partial knowledge on the linear dynamics of the plant, we also propose a novel recurrent neural network (RNN)-based remote state estimator aided by a virtual state estimation mean-square-error (MSE) process. We further propose a novel online training algorithm such that the RNN at the remote estimator can effectively learn the unknown plant nonlinearities. Using the Lyapunov drift analysis approach, we establish closed-form sufficient requirements on the communication resources needed to achieve almost sure stability of both state estimation and RNN online training in high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime. As a result, our proposed scheme is asymptomatic optimal for large SNR in the sense that both the plant state and the unknown plant nonlinearities can be perfectly recovered at the remote estimator. The proposed scheme is also compared with various baselines and we show that significant performance gains can be achieved.

Multi-class random access wireless network: General results and performance analysis of LoRaWAN

This paper presents new analytical results for evaluating the ALOHA-like multi-class random access wireless network’s performance. The proposed model is motivated by the growth of low-power wireless networks that employ random access protocols. In particular, we compare our analytical formulation with system-level simulations of Long Range (LoRa) technology. We show that the proposed formulation provides an accurate approximation of LoRaWAN performance capturing its main trade-offs. The main contributions are (i) an extensive analysis of the impact of different LoRa spreading factors (SFs) allocation strategies, including area intersection among SFs, which is little explored in the literature and represents the optimal approach under some conditions; and (ii) the optimal proportion of users that maximizes the network throughput for each class and for each allocation strategy considered in the paper.

Backoff Entropy: Predicting Presaturation Peak for IEEE 802.11 DCF Networks

In nonsaturated 802.11 distributed coordination function (DCF) networks, existing studies had observed a salient phenomenon: the maximum stable throughput may be far higher than the saturation throughput and last for a long duration (say, months). Such a maximum stable throughput is called the presaturation throughput peak. The long-duration peak suggests that 802.11 DCF networks may provide a far higher stable throughput than what we generally believe, without worrying about a sudden deterioration of quality of service (QoS). This paper is devoted to developing a general theoretical framework to predict the peak. In the framework, we define a backoff entropy to quantify the uncertainty of the inherent random backoff process of 802.11 DCF networks, and then innovatively introduce a BackoffEntropy-Peak linearity property (i.e., the peak is linearly proportional to the backoff entropy) for the peak prediction. This framework is applicable for a general configuration of contention windows (CWs). It enables us to reveal the most essential dependency of the peak on the initial CW size and the number of network nodes. Further, we design peak-based call admission control (CAC) schemes that can be performed quickly and easily, without requiring network performance measurements and complex calculations. We verify our framework and CAC schemes via widely adopted 802.11 DCF ns2 and ns3 simulators (mostly with typical 802.11 standard settings). Extensive simulations show that our framework and CAC schemes trade within 9% peak prediction errors for making 802.11 DCF networks provide high stable throughput with good QoS (such as short delay and low collision probability). This paper is the first to propose applying the information entropy to study the throughput-stability problem. We believe that this study makes a crucial breakthrough in thoroughly investigating nonsaturated performance and network stability of random access wireless networks.

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Application of deep and robust resource allocation for uncertain CSI in English distance teaching

In order to ensure that channel state information and interference channel state information can be defined at the same time in random access wireless networks, we propose a deeply robust resource allocation architecture. The resource allocation architecture regards the goal of optimizing wireless resources as a learning problem, and uses deep neural networks to learn the best resource allocation strategy. An elliptical shape is modeled for robust resources with uncertain channel state information (CSI) depth, and a network structure composed of two cascaded deep neural network (DNN) units is proposed. First, it is a resource processing unit with uncertain CSI depth and robustness, and the second is a power control unit. Then, an alternative iterative learning algorithm is proposed for joint training of two cascaded DNN units. Finally, the simulation compares the performance of the network under the robust learning strategy and the non-robust learning strategy, and verifies the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Due to the continuous innovation of modern education technology, when English distance teaching cannot be carried out in the classroom face-to-face teaching, online English distance teaching becomes a necessary method. The live English distance teaching on the Internet has developed rapidly in the context of globalization. The goal of teaching is to train talents according to the requirements of the society. It has played an active role in promoting the subjective initiative of students, fully demonstrating the convenience of the information society and the balance learning resources play an important role.

RNN-Based Learning of Nonlinear Dynamic System Using Wireless IIoT Networks

We consider the recurrent neural network (RNN)-based remote state estimation for nonlinear dynamic systems with unknown state dynamics. The nonlinear dynamic plant is monitored by multiple distributed IIoT sensors over a random access wireless network with shared common spectrum. We focus on the remote state estimation algorithm design so as to achieve remote state estimation stability subject to noninvertible nonlinear sensor state observations, imperfect channel state information (CSI) at the remote estimator, and various wireless impairments, such as multisensor interference, wireless fading, and additive channel noise. Utilizing a state diffeomorphism, the original system is transformed into a canonical form with a linear rank deficient observation matrix. We propose a novel RNN remote state estimator based on the pole placement design associated with the transformed rank deficient state measurement matrices. We further propose a novel online training algorithm such that the RNN at the remote estimator can not only address the divergence issue over wireless networks but also effectively learn the unknown nonlinear plant dynamics despite rank deficiency and imperfect CSI. Using the Lyapunov drift analysis approach, we establish closed-form sufficient requirements on the communication resources needed to achieve almost sure stability of both state estimation and RNN online training in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime. As a result, our proposed scheme is asymptomatic optimal for large SNR in the sense that both the plant state and the unknown plant nonlinearity can be perfectly recovered at the remote estimator. The proposed scheme is also compared with various baselines and we show that significant performance gains can be achieved.

Rate Selection for Wireless Random Access Networks Over Block Fading Channels

We study uncoordinated random access over fading channels where each user independently decides whether to send a packet or not to a common receiver at any given time slot. Specifically, we develop an information theoretic formulation to characterize the overall system throughput. We consider two scenarios: classical slotted ALOHA, where no multiuser detection (MUD) capability is available and slotted ALOHA with MUD. In each case, in order to maximize the system throughput, we provide methods to obtain the optimal rates and channel activity probabilities using the user distances to the receiver (or, equivalently, their average signal to noise ratios) assuming a Rayleigh block fading channel. The results demonstrate that the newly proposed optimal rate selection solutions offer significant increase in the expected system throughputs compared to the “same rate to all users” approach commonly used in the literature. In addition to the overall throughput optimization, we also address the issue of fairness among users and propose approaches guaranteeing a minimum amount of individual throughput to each user, and design systems with limited individual outage probabilities for increased energy efficiency and reduced delay.

Performance analysis of a cooperative wireless network with adaptive relays

In this work, we investigate a slotted-time relay assisted cooperative random access wireless network with multipacket (MPR) reception capabilities. MPR refers to the capability of a wireless node to successfully receive packets from more than two other modes that transmit simultaneously at the same slot. We consider a network of N saturated sources that transmit packets to a common destination node with the cooperation of two infinite capacity relay nodes. The relays assist the sources by forwarding the packets that failed to reach the destination. Moreover, the relays have also packets of their own to transmit to the destination. We further assume that the relays employ a state-dependent retransmission control mechanism. In particular, a relay node accordingly adapts its transmission probability based on the status of the other relay. Such a protocol is towards self-aware networks and leads to substantial performance gains in terms of delay. We investigate the stability region and the throughput performance for the full MPR model. Moreover, for the asymmetric two-sources, two-relay case we derive the generating function of the stationary joint queue-length distribution with the aid of the theory of boundary value problems. For the symmetric case, we obtain explicit expressions for the average queueing delay in a relay node without solving a boundary value problem. Extensive numerical examples are presented and provide insights on the system performance.

On the Tradeoff Between Collision and Cooperation in a Random Access Wireless Network With Energy Harvesting Nodes

In this paper, we investigate an energy harvesting cooperative network in which the cooperation is done in a random access environment. Although the cooperation provides an extra harvested energy supply for transmissions of the source, it causes probable collisions for the transmitted source packets. Thus, this kind of cooperation can improve or degrade the QoS of the source packets. We find the optimal policy in such a scenario to maximize the source throughput and derive the necessary and sufficient condition for no-cooperation policy to be throughput-optimal. Then, we prove that the maximum throughput is obtained by considering no-cooperation or full-cooperation policy depending on the network parameters. Also, we design optimal static and dynamic policies to minimize the average end-to-end delay for the source packets. In a static policy, the packets are accepted at the relay with a fixed probability while in a dynamic policy, the decision is made based on the status of data and energy buffers in the relay. We derive the necessary and sufficient condition under which the no-cooperation is the delay-optimal policy. When no-cooperation is not optimal, we model the scenario as a quasi-birth-death process and a constrained Markov decision process to derive static and dynamic delay-optimal policies, respectively. By several numerical results, we show the effect of tradeoff between cooperation and collision in the derived optimal policies in different network conditions.

Fair Coexistence of Scheduled and Random Access Wireless Networks: Unlicensed LTE/WiFi

We study the fair coexistence of scheduled and random access transmitters sharing the same frequency channel. Interest in coexistence is topical due to the need for emerging unlicensed LTE technologies to coexist fairly with WiFi. However, this interest is not confined to LTE/WiFi as coexistence is likely to become increasingly commonplace in IoT networks and beyond 5G. In this paper, we show that mixing scheduled and random access incurs an inherent throughput/delay cost and the cost of heterogeneity. We derive the joint proportional fair rate allocation, which casts useful light on current LTE/WiFi discussions. We present experimental results on inter-technology detection and consider the impact of imperfect carrier sensing.

Distributed Learning Algorithms for Spectrum Sharing in Spatial Random Access Wireless Networks

We consider distributed optimization over orthogonal collision channels in spatial random access networks. Users are spatially distributed and each user is in the interference range of a few other users. Each user is allowed to transmit over a subset of the shared channels with a certain attempt probability. We study both the non-cooperative and cooperative settings. In the former, the goal of each user is to maximize its own rate irrespective of the utilities of other users. In the latter, the goal is to achieve proportionally fair rates among users. Simple distributed learning algorithms are developed to solve these problems. The efficiencies of the proposed algorithms are demonstrated via both theoretical analysis and simulation results.

Distributed admission control algorithm for random access wireless networks in the presence of hidden terminals

We address the problem of admission control for wireless clients in WLANs taking into account collisions between competing access points and considering explicitly the effect of hidden terminals, which play a prominent role in optimised client association. We propose an efficient, distributed admission control algorithm, where the wireless client node decides locally on which access point it will associate with in order to maximise its link throughput. The client can choose to optimise either its uplink or downlink throughput, depending on the type of traffic it predominantly intends to exchange with the network. The proposed approach takes into account the full contention resolution of the RTS/CTS IEEE802.11 medium access control protocol and leads towards an increase of the total throughput for the whole network. Finally, an algorithm is proposed, which can serve also as the basis for the development of efficient traffic offloading protocols in heterogeneous 5G networks.

Stability Analysis of Slotted Aloha With Opportunistic RF Energy Harvesting

Energy harvesting (EH) is a promising technology for realizing energy-efficient wireless networks. In this paper, we utilize the ambient RF energy, particularly interference from neighboring transmissions, to replenish the batteries of the EH enabled nodes. However, RF energy harvesting imposes new challenges into the analysis of wireless networks. Our objective in this paper is to investigate the performance of a slotted Aloha random access wireless network consisting of two types of nodes, namely Type I, which has unlimited energy supply and Type II, which is solely powered by an RF energy harvesting circuit. The transmissions of a Type I node are recycled by a Type II node to replenish its battery. We characterize an inner bound on the stable throughput region under half-duplex and full-duplex energy harvesting paradigms as well as for the finite capacity battery case. Additionally, we analyze the case where RF energy harvesting serves as a backup for an unlimited energy source. We present numerical results that validate our analytical results, and demonstrate their utility for the analysis of the exact system.

Slow Transitions and Starvation in Dense Random-Access Networks

We consider dense wireless random-access networks, modeled as systems of particles with hardcore interaction. The particles represent the network users that try to become active after an exponential back-off time, and stay active for an exponential transmission time. Due to wireless interference, active users prevent other nearby users from simultaneous activity, which we describe as hardcore interaction on a conflict graph. We show that dense networks with aggressive back-off schemes lead to extremely slow transitions between dominant states, and inevitably cause long mixing times and starvation effects.

Markovian polling systems with an application to wireless random-access networks

Motivated by an application in wireless random-access networks, we study a class of polling systems with Markovian routing, in which the server visits the queues in an order governed by a discrete-time Markov chain. Assuming that the service disciplines at each of the queues fall in the class of branching-type service disciplines, we derive a functional equation for (the probability generating function of) the joint queue length distribution conditioned on a point in time when the server visits a certain queue. From this functional equation, expressions for the (cross-)moments of the queue lengths follow. We also derive a pseudo-conservation law for this class of polling systems. Using these results, we compute expressions for certain system parameters that minimise the total expected amount of work in systems that arise from the wireless random-access network setting. In addition, we derive approximations for those same parameters that minimise a weighted sum of mean waiting times in these systems. Based on these expressions, we also present an adaptive control algorithm for finding the optimal parameter values in a distributed fashion, which is particularly relevant in the context of wireless random-access networks.

Facilitating Incentive-Compatible Access Probability Selection in Wireless Random Access Networks

Facilitating Incentive-Compatible Access Probability Selection in Wireless Random Access Networks

English

English

Delay performance in random-access networks

We explore the achievable delay performance in wireless random-access networks. While relatively simple and inherently distributed in nature, suitably designed queue-based random-access schemes provide the striking capability to match the optimal throughput performance of centralized scheduling mechanisms in a wide range of scenarios. The specific type of activation rules for which throughput optimality has been established, may however yield excessive queues and delays. Motivated by that issue, we examine whether the poor delay performance is inherent to the basic operation of these schemes, or caused by the specific kind of activation rules. We derive delay lower bounds for queue-based activation rules, which offer fundamental insight in the cause of the excessive delays. For fixed activation rates, we obtain lower bounds indicating that delays can grow dramatically with the load in certain topologies as well.

Wireless network control of interacting Rydberg atoms.

We identify a relation between the dynamics of ultracold Rydberg gases in which atoms experience a strong dipole blockade and spontaneous emission, and a stochastic process that models certain wireless random-access networks. We then transfer insights and techniques initially developed for these wireless networks to the realm of Rydberg gases, and explain how the Rydberg gas can be driven into crystal formations using our understanding of wireless networks. Finally, we propose a method to determine Rabi frequencies (laser intensities) such that particles in the Rydberg gas are excited with specified target excitation probabilities, providing control over mixed-state populations.

Queues with random back-offs

We consider a broad class of queueing models with random state-dependent vacation periods, which arise in the analysis of queue-based back-off algorithms in wireless random-access networks. In contrast to conventional models, the vacation periods may be initiated after each service completion, and can be randomly terminated with certain probabilities that depend on the queue length. We first present exact queue-length and delay results for some specific cases and we derive stochastic bounds for a much richer set of scenarios. Using these, together with stochastic relations between systems with different vacation disciplines, we examine the scaled queue length and delay in a heavy-traffic regime, and demonstrate a sharp trichotomy, depending on how the activation rate and vacation probability behave as function of the queue length. In particular, the effect of the vacation periods may either (i) completely vanish in heavy-traffic conditions, (ii) contribute an additional term to the queue lengths and delays of similar magnitude, or even (iii) give rise to an order-of-magnitude increase. The heavy-traffic trichotomy provides valuable insight into the impact of the back-off algorithms on the delay performance in wireless random-access networks.