Saturated Traffic Conditions Research Articles

Exploiting the fundamental diagram of urban networks for feedback-based gating

Traffic signal control for urban road networks has been an area of intensive research efforts for several decades, and various algorithms and tools have been developed and implemented to increase the network traffic flow efficiency. Despite the continuous advances in the field of traffic control under saturated conditions, novel and promising developments of simple concepts in this area remains a significant objective, because some proposed approaches that are based on various meta-heuristic optimization algorithms can hardly be used in a real-time environment. To address this problem, the recently developed notion of network fundamental diagram for urban networks is exploited to improve mobility in saturated traffic conditions via application of gating measures, based on an appropriate simple feedback control structure. As a case study, the proposed methodology is applied to the urban network of Chania, Greece, using microscopic simulation. The results show that the total delay in the network decreases significantly and the mean speed increases accordingly.

Throughput and delay analysis of network coded ALOHA in wireless networks

Abstract The purpose of this article is to analyze the impact of network coding in wireless networks. We consider a network coded ALOHA that performs bi-directional network coding over the ALOHA MAC protocol in a star topology network. The transmission probabilities of each outer node and the center node, and the target signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) are jointly optimized to achieve the maximum throughput of coded ALOHA. We analyze and compare the optimal performance of slotted and coded ALOHA. Under the unsaturated traffic condition at the center node, we derive practical throughput and delay, considering the network coding opportunity and the maximum queue length of the center node. Under the saturated traffic condition, we obtain a throughput upper bound of coded ALOHA to judge the ideal gain of network coding. The impact of asymmetric topology is evaluated with simulations.

Analytical Study of the IEEE 802.11p MAC Sublayer in Vehicular Networks

This paper proposes an analytical model for the throughput of the enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) mechanism in the IEEE 802.11p medium-access control (MAC) sublayer. Features in EDCA such as different contention windows (CW) and arbitration interframe space (AIFS) for each access category (AC) and internal collisions are taken into account. The analytical model is suitable for both basic access and the request-to-send/clear-to-send (RTS/CTS) access mode. Different from most of existing 3-D or 4-D Markov-chain-based analytical models for IEEE 802.11e EDCA, without computation complexity, the proposed analytical model is explicitly solvable and applies to four access categories of traffic in the IEEE 802.11p. The proposed model can be used for large-scale network analysis and validation of network simulators under saturated traffic conditions. Simulation results are given to demonstrate the accuracy of the analytical model. In addition, we investigate service differentiation capabilities of the IEEE 802.11p MAC sublayer.

Analysis of the MAC protocol in low rate wireless personal area networks with bursty ON–OFF traffic

SUMMARYSupported by the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, embedded sensor networks have become popular and been widely deployed in recent years. The IEEE 802.15.4 medium access control (MAC) protocol is uniquely designed to meet the desirable requirements of the low end‐to‐end delay, low packet loss, and low power consumption in the low rate wireless personal areas networks (LR‐WPANs). This paper develops an analytical model to quantify the key performance metrics of the MAC protocol in LR‐WPANs with bursty ON–OFF traffic. This study fills the gap in the literature by removing the assumptions of saturated traffic or nonbursty unsaturated traffic conditions, which are unable to capture the characteristics of bursty multimedia traffic in sensor networks. This analytical model can be used to derive the QoS performance metrics in terms of throughput and total delay. The accuracy of the model is verified through NS‐2 (http://www.isi.edu/nsnam/ns/) simulation experiments. This model is adopted to investigate the performance of the MAC protocol in LR‐WPANs under various traffic patterns, different loads, and various numbers of stations. Numerical results show that the traffic patterns and traffic burstiness have a significant impact on the delay performance of LR‐WPANs. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

불완전 채널 감지하의 IEEE 802.11 DCF 포화상태 성능 분석

본 논문은 불완전한 채널 감지를 고려한 포화 상태에서의 IEEE 802.11 carrier-sense multiple access with collision-avoidance(CSMA/CA)의 성능을 분석한다. 불완전한 채널 감지는 missed-detection과 false alarm을 포함하는데, 이러한 불완전한 채널 감지가 IEEE 802.11의 성능에 미치는 영향을 분석하고 이를 수식적으로 표현한다. 물리 계층의 불완전한 채널 감지를 표현하기 위해, 본 논문에서는 기존의 2차원 마코프 프로세스 모델을 수정했다. 모의실험 결과와 제안된 모델의 이론적인 결과가 일치하는 것을 보였다. 이러한 실험 결과를 바탕으로, 감지 확률이 IEEE 802.11의 성능에 있어 가장 중요한 요소임을 확인하였다. In this paper, performance of IEEE 802.11 carrier-sense multiple access with collision-avoidance (CSMA/CA) protocols in saturated traffic conditions is presented taking into account the impact of imperfect channel sensing. The imperfect channel sensing includes both missed-detection and false alarm and their impact on the performance of IEEE 802.11 is analyzed and expressed as a closed form. To include the imperfect channel sensing at the physical layer, we modified the state transition probabilities of well-known two state Markov process model. Simulation results closely match the theoretical expressions confirming the effectiveness of the proposed model. Based on both theoretical and simulated results, the probability of detection is concluded as a dominant factor for the performance of IEEE 802.11.

Congestion Control in Urban Networks via Feedback Gating

Traffic signal control for urban road networks has been an area of intensive research efforts for several decades, and various algorithms and tools have been developed and implemented to increase the network traffic flow efficiency. Despite the continuous advances in the field of traffic control under saturated conditions, novel and promising developments of simple concepts in this area remains a significant objective, because some proposed approaches that are based on various metacheuristic optimization algorithms can hardly be used in a real–time environment. To address this problem, the recently developed notion of network fundamental diagram for urban networks is exploited to improve mobility in saturated traffic conditions via application of gating measures, based on an appropriate feedback control structure. As a case study, the proposed methodology is applied to the urban network of Chania, Greece, using microscopic simulation. The results show that the total delay in the network decreases significantly and the mean speed increases accordingly.

On the Throughput Comparisons of MAC Protocols in Multi-Hop Wireless Networks

We revisit the use of throughput metrics in studying Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols in static multi-hop wireless networks. To complement existing single-hop and multi-hop throughput notions, we first propose a unified normalized throughput expression. Since current multi-hop metrics do not give much intuition on how close a MAC protocol's throughput performance is to the best achievable for a given network topology, we present a new variant that benchmarks against the maximum achievable throughput. It can be characterized by the product of the number of maximum successful simultaneous transmissions smax under saturated traffic conditions, and link rate R. We show how to compute smax via a linear programming formulation and demonstrate its use in both string and grid topologies. We also derive exact mathematical expressions for the maximum simultaneous transmissions for these two topologies.

Packet Delay Statistics of the Multichannel Selective-Repeat Automatic-Repeat-Request

In this paper, we conduct stochastic modeling and analysis of the packet end-to-end delay in a multichannel selective-repeat automatic-repeat-request (MSR-ARQ) protocol. In this protocol, the transmitter continuously transmits packets over multiple parallel channels and retransmits erroneously received packets with either dynamic or static packet-to-channel scheduling policy. Under the assumption that packets are always supplied at the transmitter, denoted by the saturated traffic condition, we analyze the steady state probability distribution function of the delay of an arbitrary packet, which is measured by the duration between the instant at which the packet is transmitted for the first time and the time it departs from the resequencing queue at the receiver. Using the analysis result, we numerically compute the distribution function for chosen values of the number of channels and the error rates to demonstrate the computational effectiveness of the result. With numerical and simulation results, we then study the performance of MSR-ARQ in terms of the mean packet delay and compare the two scheduling policies. It is shown that the dynamic scheduling achieves a better packet delay performance than the static scheduling. With the dynamic scheduling and the presence of difference between the error rates of parallel channels, the mean packet delay decreases as the difference between channels’ error rates increases. Moreover, the number of parallel channels has an insignificant impact on the mean packet delay, which shows that the use of parallel channels is favorable for the wireless or mobile communications to increase the data transmission rate while keeping the mean packet delay at an acceptable level.

Exploring the feasibility of differentiating IEEE 802.15.4 networks to support health-care systems

IEEE 802.15.4 networks are a feasible platform candidate for connecting all health-care-related equipment dispersed across a hospital room to collect critical time-sensitive data about patient health state, such as the heart rate and blood pressure. To meet the quality of service requirements of health-care systems, this paper proposes a multi-priority queue system that differentiates between various types of frames. The effect of the proposed system on the average delay and throughput is explored herein. By employing different contention window parameters, as in IEEE 802.11e, this multi-queue system prioritizes frames on the basis of priority classes. Performance under both saturated and unsaturated traffic conditions was evaluated using a novel analytical model that comprehensively integrates two legacy models for 802.15.4 and 802.11e. To improve the accuracy, our model also accommodates the transmission retries and deferment algorithms that significantly affect the performance of IEEE 802.15.4. The multi-queue scheme is predicted to separate the average delay and throughput of two different classes by up to 48.4 % and 46 %, respectively, without wasting bandwidth. These outcomes imply that the multi-queue system should be employed in health-care systems for prompt allocation of synchronous channels and faster delivery of urgent information. The simulation results validate these model's predictions with a maximum deviation of 7.6%.

Performance Analysis of Contention Based Bandwidth Request Mechanisms in WiMAX Networks

WiMAX networks have received wide attention as they support high data rate access and amazing ubiquitous connectivity with great quality-of-service (QoS) capabilities. In order to support QoS, bandwidth request (BW-REQ) mechanisms are suggested in the WiMAX standard for resource reservation, in which subscriber stations send BW-REQs to a base station which can grant or reject the requests according to the available radio resources. In this paper we propose a new analytical model for the performance analysis of various contention based bandwidth request mechanisms, including grouping and no-grouping schemes, as suggested in the WiMAX standard. Our analytical model covers both unsaturated and saturated traffic load conditions in both error-free and error-prone wireless channels. The accuracy of this model is verified by various simulation results. Our results show that the grouping mechanism outperforms the no-grouping mechanism when the system load is high, but it is not preferable when the system load is light. The channel noise degrades the performance of both throughput and delay.

Sustainable Throughput of Wireless LANs with Multipacket Reception Capability under Bounded Delay-Moment Requirements

With the rapid proliferation of broadband wireless services, it is of paramount importance to understand how fast data can be sent through a wireless local area network (WLAN). Thanks to a large body of research following the seminal work of Bianchi, WLAN throughput under saturated traffic condition has been well understood. By contrast, prior investigations on throughput performance under unsaturated traffic condition was largely based on phenomenological observations, which lead to a common misconception that WLAN can support a traffic load as high as saturation throughput, if not higher, under nonsaturation condition. In this paper, we show through rigorous analysis that this misconception may result in unacceptable quality of service: mean packet delay and delay jitter may approach infinity even when the traffic load is far below the saturation throughput. Hence, saturation throughput is not a sound measure of WLAN capacity under nonsaturation condition. To bridge the gap, we define safe-bounded-mean-delay (SBMD) throughput and safe-bounded-delay-jitter (SBDJ) throughput that reflect the actual network capacity users can enjoy when they require finite mean delay and delay jitter, respectively. Our earlier work proved that in a WLAN with multi-packet reception (MPR) capability, saturation throughput scales superlinearly with the MPR capability of the network. This paper extends the investigation to the nonsaturation case and shows that superlinear scaling also holds for SBMD and SBDJ throughputs. Our results here complete the demonstration of MPR as a powerful capacity-enhancement technique for WLAN under both saturation and nonsaturation conditions.

Performance Analysis of Binary Exponential Backoff and Improved Backoff for WPAN

The IEEE 802.15.3 medium access control (MAC) is proposed, especially, for wireless personal area network (WPAN) short and high data rates applications, to coordinate the access to the wireless medium among the competing devices. A concept of a geometrically increasing probability distribution for contention process was brought up in the work of Tay et al. (2004) . In this paper, we adopt this idea as improved backoff (IB) for contention process of IEEE 802.15.3, where binary exponential backoff (BEB) is originally used. Here, we propose an analytical model for IB and compared both BEB and IB for saturated and nonsaturated traffic conditions. Furthermore, our research results demonstrate that IB provides an edge over BEB in terms of channel efficiency, channel access delay, and energy efficiency.

Multimodal Accessibility of Modern Roundabouts

Modern roundabouts have become popular in North America during the past decade. This popularity can be attributed to their great success in Europe and Australia. There has been significant debate, however, over their accessibility for pedestrians. With almost uninterrupted traffic flows, roundabouts make it difficult for the visually impaired to determine safe gaps, as they rely on auditory cues alone. Such crossing is particularly complicated by ambient noises and circulating vehicles on busy urban roundabouts. Various pedestrian signals have been installed at roundabouts overseas. The United States Access Board published a draft guideline proposing pedestrian signals at all roundabout crossings to ensure access for the visually impaired. Roundabout operations can be a complex process of transporting multimodal travelers. There is increased interest in harnessing artificial intelligence to address issues to improve transportation systems. This research developed a crosswalk signal and introduced fuzzy logic control (FLC) into the signal timing to accommodate roundabout users. The system was assessed against the Pedestrian User-Friendly Intelligent (PUFFIN) crossings under varied geometries under different traffic conditions. The objective was to identify potential treatments for improving roundabout accessibility, safety, and efficiency. The results reveal that “distant” layout reduces vehicle delays and queue lengths when the FLC signal is applied, especially under saturated traffic conditions. From safety and operational perspectives, the FLC signal outperforms PUFFIN. The FLC signal implements the signal timing effectively, decreases pedestrian delay, and maintains adequate vehicle circulation. Multimodal traveler needs at a modern roundabout are satisfied in manifold ways.

Synchronized Signal Control Model for Maximizing Progression along an Arterial

For the most part, optimal signal timing is the most effective and economical method for mitigating traffic congestion in urban areas. In this study, a new mixed integer nonlinear programming model is proposed to develop an optimal arterial-based progression algorithm. The proposed algorithm is designed to optimize the bandwidths for contiguous signals along a signalized arterial. The traffic conditions for examining the proposed algorithm are extracted from moderate to high saturated traffic conditions. The main objective of the proposed algorithm is to allow traffic to traverse through the maximum number of downstream intersections without a stop. According to measures of effectiveness ( MOEs ) acquired by TSIS-CORSIM 6, the signal timing generated by the proposed model yields lower stops (%) when compared with the signal timing optimized and generated by Synchro. In addition, the proposed model yields lower network-wide average delays (sec/veh) and higher average travel speeds (km/h) under moderate to ...

Achieving higher throughput in IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networks with burst transmission methods

As extensions in the emerging 802.11e for quality-of-service provisioning, burst transmission and the acknowledgment aggregation are the two important operations to improve the channel efficiency of IEEE 802.11-based wireless local area networks (WLANs). However, only a few works have been done on these operations, and usually assumed the networks to be operated under saturated traffic conditions and error-free channels. In practice, the assumptions may not be valid because real-time traffic with proper rate control will not saturate the networks and the channel is generally error-prone. Thus, the authors consider two new methods resulted from these operations and analyse their performance under unsaturated and error-prone WLANs, with a Markov chain model. The results show that the new methods generally have better throughput than the conventional IEEE 802.11 medium access control (MAC) in the WLANs.

Throughput study for admission control in IEEE 802.11 DCF with ARF

We propose an analytical approach to determining the admission of new stations to a WLAN operating in IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function (DCF) with auto rate fallback (ARF). The proposed approach is based on a cross layer analytical model of how the throughput of existing stations in the WLAN is affected by admitting the new station in non-saturated as well as saturated traffic conditions. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is verified by simulations.

Analysis of the IEEE 802.11 Back-Off Mechanism in Presence of Hidden Nodes

The binary exponential back-off mechanism is one of the basic elements that constitute the IEEE 802.11 protocol. The models of the back-off mechanism have been developed with the assumption that collisions occur only due to nodes within the carrier sensing range and the collision probability is constant in steady-state. However, the transmission collisions can occur due to hidden nodes and these tend to occur consecutively, contrary to the collisions due to nodes within the carrier sensing range. Consecutive collisions increase the back-off time exponentially, resulting in less frequent transmission attempts. Ignoring this collision characteristic in modeling the back-off mechanism can produce large errors in the performance analysis of networks. In this paper, we model the back-off process as a Markov renewal process by taking into account such consecutive collisions due to hidden nodes, and then compare this result with NS2 simulation results. According to the simulation results, the proposed model reduces the relative error in the attempt probability by more than 90% in the grid topology. We also propose a new collision model for a simple network considering consecutive collisions due to hidden nodes, and analyze the network under saturated traffic condition using the proposed models. The attempt and collision probabilities are estimated with high accuracy.

On the Linear Behaviour of the Throughput of IEEE 802.11 DCF in Non-Saturated Conditions

We propose a linear model of the throughput of the IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function (DCF) protocol at the data link layer in non-saturated traffic conditions. We show that the throughput is a linear function of the packet arrival rate (PAR) lambda with a slope depending on both the number of contending stations and the average payload length. We also derive the interval of validity of the proposed model by showing the presence of a critical lambda, above which the station begins operating in saturated traffic conditions. The analysis is based on the multi-dimensional Markovian state transition model proposed by Liaw et al. with the aim of describing the behaviour of the MAC layer in unsaturated traffic conditions. Simulation results closely match the theoretical derivations, confirming the effectiveness of the proposed linear model.

Impact of bursty error rates on the performance of wireless local area network (WLAN)

With an increasing popularity of DCF based wireless LAN, the modeling of 802.11 distributed coordination function (DCF) has attracted lots of research attention. Existing analysis of 802.11 DCF has been focused on the determination of the throughput and the packet delay under saturated traffic and ideal channel conditions. Although some recent papers address the saturated performance under a simple uniform error model, they can hardly capture the impact of bursty characteristics of wireless fading on the performance of 802.11 DCF. This paper presents exact formulae for the throughput and the delay in DCF for various traffic conditions when either saturated or unsaturated traffic load is present. A two-state Markov channel model is incorporated to present the bursty characteristics of channel errors. With our analysis, the impact of bursty channel error on unsuccessful transmission probability and the DCF performance can be determined. The results of our analytical framework reveal that the four-way handshaking scheme does not improve throughput substantially for light traffic load. However, for heavy traffic load, the four-way handshaking scheme is advantageous as compared to the basic access scheme. Also, extensive simulation is done to substantiate the accuracy of our analytical model.

Application and Evaluation of the Signal Traffic Control Strategy TUC in Chania

The article presents results of a field implementation and evaluation of the traffic-responsive signal control strategy Traffic-responsive Urban Control (TUC) in two junctions of the urban network of Chania, Greece. Based on a store-and-forward modelling of the urban network traffic and using the Linear-Quadratic regulator theory, the design of TUC leads to a multivariable regulator for traffic-responsive coordinated network-wide signal control that is particularly suitable for saturated traffic conditions. The presented results, although limited in space (two junctions) and time of evaluation, are promising for the particular site and for the control of urban networks in general as they indicate a superior performance of TUC compared to an established signal control strategy.