Fair WLAN backhaul aggregation

Abstract-The increase in data consumed by smartphones is becoming a huge problem for mobile operators. In three years, mobile data traffic in AT&T's network rose 5000%. The US operators invest $50 billion in the data networks every year and the technology upgrades and innovation still fail to keep up with the demand.In this paper we design two algorithms for delaytolerant offloading of bulky, socially recommended content from 3G networks. The first one, called "MixZones", uses opportunistic, ad hoc transfers between users, and is assisted by predictions made by the network operator. The second one, called "HotZones", exploits delay tolerance and tries to download contents when users are close to Wi-Fi access points; it is also assisted by predictions made by the operator. We evaluate both algorithms using a large data set, obtained from a major mobile operator and a realistic application similar to Apple's Ping music social network. The metrics address the amount of offloading, delay and mobile energy efficiency.We find that both solutions succeed in offloading a significant amount of traffic, with a positive impact on user battery lifetime. Surprisingly, we also find that all the benefit obtained from the operator with the MixZones algorithm (i.e with ad hoc exchanges between users) can be achieved with the HotZones algorithm and a small investment in Wi-Fi access points. Note that the latter is considerably less complex to deploy than the former.

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“…The fairness scheme proposed in [21] could be extended to mobile subscribers in order to reduce cost and provide better coverage.…”

Section: Discussion and Future Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy Efficient Offloading of 3G Networks

Ristanovic

Boudec

Chaintreau

et al. 2011

2011 IEEE Eighth International Conference on Mobile Ad-Hoc and Sensor Systems

103

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“…Arbor [15] is a similar aggregation scheme with the added focus on aggregation over secure wireless networks. THEMIS [6] takes a different approach with a focus on fairness between multiple aggregating clients; in a blind aggregation scheme such as FatVAP well-connected clients can easily consume an excessive amount of bandwidth at the expense of more poorly connected clients.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wireless clients can overcome this limitation by aggregating backhaul links from multiple APs [5], [6]. In such a protocol, a WLAN client connects to multiple APs, one at a time, with the order and duration of each connection determined by the parameters-such as bandwidth, queue length, congestion, etc.-of both the backhaul and the WLAN channel.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sidekick: AP aggregation over partially overlapping channels

Chai

Shin

2011

2011 19th IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols

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Abstract-The uncoordinated deployment of many highbandwidth 802.11a/g/n access points (APs) in urban areas offers the potential for WLANs to be a strong complement to cellular networks in providing ubiquitous connectivity. However, given that the bandwidth of the backhaul links connected to these APs is often an order-of-magnitude lower than that of the WLAN channel, aggregating the throughput from multiple APs is often necessary in order for the client to achieve an acceptable level of network performance.In this paper, we present Sidekick -a simple and novel AP aggregation protocol that exploits effective communication between 802.11a/g/n nodes on partially overlapping channels to attain high aggregate throughput in the face of dynamic WLAN and backhaul link conditions. Sidekick is built upon Aileron, which provides an extremely reliable and low-overhead control channel over which the APs and clients can coordinate the aggregation process. The use of such a control channel over partially overlapping channels enables Sidekick to quickly respond to varying bandwidth availability and probe for new transmission opportunities with little overhead. Our evaluation results indicate that Sidekick can make more than 30% improvement in throughput over FatVAP in a variety of situations.

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“…The overloading of APs not only causes unbalanced users' throughput (hence unfairness) but also lowers the overall system throughput. This is observed in most deployments of Mesh, WLANs and open WiFi networks [5], [6], [7]. In practice, however, the association metric implemented in wireless devices only considers the RSSI (received signal strength indicator) values for AP selection.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Backhaul limited: An important architectural feature of community and open WiFi hotspot deployments is the limited backhaul capacity of the access points [7], [16]. In fact, the current wireless standards 802.11g and 802.11n offer nominal throughputs up to 54Mbps and 300Mbps, respectively.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distributed association control in shared wireless networks

Garikipati

Shin

2013

2013 IEEE International Conference on Sensing, Communications and Networking (SECON)

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Abstract-In modern wireless networks, fairness of user throughputs is often important to efficiently utilize the available network bandwidth. Association control-control of user associations to reduce overloading of access points (APs)-has been the standard approach to address this problem. However, in the recent paradigm of shared wireless networks in both, community and commercial space, access points are increasingly managed without any central coordination. As a result, achieving user level fairness in these settings remains a challenging task.In this paper, we consider the global utility of proportional fairness. Specifically, we propose a distributed approach to association control, in which each user makes association decisions based on the information gathered from probe responses from its nearby APs. Two solutions are presented: (i) a randomized approach, in which users update their associations probabilistically, and (ii) a deterministic association rule that converges quickly. We provide theoretical guarantees on the performance of both approaches. Our simulation results show that the proposed solutions can significantly improve fairness and overall throughput compared to other association heuristics.

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Fair WLAN backhaul aggregation

Cited by 39 publications

References 13 publications

Energy Efficient Offloading of 3G Networks

Energy Efficient Offloading of 3G Networks

Sidekick: AP aggregation over partially overlapping channels

Distributed association control in shared wireless networks

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