Towards a practical and fair rate allocation for multihop wireless networks based on a simple node model

Abstract

IEEE 802.11 is often considered as the underlying wireless technology of multihop wireless networks. But the use of 802.11 in such networks raises issues, like efficiency and/or fairness issues. Different kinds of solutions have been proposed to overcome these problems. One approach is to design new MAC protocols that provide alternatives to the IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol. Although these solutions are of some interest, it should probably take some time before new wireless network interface cards based on one of these solutions are developed and released. Another approach is to consider that 802.11 will remain the underlying wireless technology and to design solutions above it. Several solutions based on rate allocation have been proposed so far. The main drawback of the proposed solutions is that they rely on a radio medium sharing model that is difficult to compute in a wireless, distributed and mobile environment. Indeed, very few of these solutions have been derived into a network protocol.In this article, we propose a distributed and dynamic rate allocation solution that is based on a simple sharing model. Due to its simplicity, we can derive a network protocol that can be practically used in multihop wireless networks. This protocol provides a fair bandwidth sharing between end-to-end flows while maintaining an efficient overall throughput in the network. This solution has been implemented in NS2 and evaluated by simulations. † Key-words: Distributed algorithms, protocols, evaluation, IEEE 802.11 * ENS Lyon -46, allée d'Italie 69364 Lyon Cedex 07 -FRANCE {remi.vannier,isabelle.guerin-lassous}@ens-lyon.fr † This work was partially supported by the european integrated project AEOLUS.Vers un protocole de répartition de débit équitable et réaliste pour les réseaux sans fil multi-sauts basé sur un modèle par noeuds Résumé : On considère souvent IEEE 802.11 comme la technologie sous-jacente aux réseaux sans fil multisauts. Pourtant, dans de tels résaux, 802.11 s'avére dans de nombreuses situations inefficace et/ou inéquitable. Pour faire face à ces problèmes, de nombreuses solutions ont déjà été proposées. Une première approche consiste à fournir une alternative à la couche MAC de 802.11. Cependant, il faudra du temps avant que de nouvelles cartes réseau s'appuyant sur l'une de ces solutions voient le jour. Une autre approche consiste à considérer que 802.11 restera durablement, et donc à développer des solutions reposant sur 802.11. Des solutions de ce type, basées sur la régulation de débit, ont été proposées, mais elles reposent sur un modèle de partage du medium radio complexe, et difficile à utiliser dans un contexte sans fil, distribué et mobile. Dans cet article, nous proposons un algorithme d'allocation de débit dynamique et distribué, reposant sur un modèle de partage simple. Grâce à sa simplicité, nous avons obtenu un protocole simple et réaliste pour les réseaux radio multi-sauts. Ce protocole permet de garantir un partage équitable de la bande passante entre flux, tout en assurant une utilisat...

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