Network Coding as a Performance Booster for Concurrent Multi-Path Transfer of Data in Multi-Hop Wireless Networks

The emerging use of multi-homed wireless devices along with simultaneous multi-path data transfer offers tremendous potentials to improve the capacity of multi-hop wireless networks. The use of simultaneous data transfer over separate disjoint paths in multi-hop wireless networks to increase network capacity is a less explored subject, mainly because of the challenges it triggers for the reliable transport layer protocols. Reliable transport layer protocols generally use packet sequence number as a mean to ensure delivery. As such, the out-of-order packet arrival in reliable transport layer protocols triggers receiver buffer blocking that causes throughput degradation and prevents the reliable multi-path transport layer protocol to realize its vast potential. This paper focuses on integrating network coding with a reliable multi-path transport layer protocol to resolve the receiver buffer blocking problem. We propose an adaptive network coding mechanism to desensitize the receiver against packet reordering and consequently eliminate the receiver buffer blocking problem. Our state-of-the-art network coding scheme uses a combination of Q-learning and logistic regression for rare data events to control the number of redundant packets based on the network dynamics. We confirmed the veracity of our proposed scheme by a queuing theory based mathematical model. Moreover, the effectiveness of the proposed scheme is demonstrated through simulations and testbed experiments.

[1]  Devavrat Shah,et al.  Feedback-Based Online Network Coding , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory.

[2]  Eryk Dutkiewicz,et al.  Extension of SCTP for Concurrent Multi-Path Transfer with Parallel Subflows , 2010, 2010 IEEE Wireless Communication and Networking Conference.

[3]  Muriel Médard,et al.  On coding for reliable communication over packet networks , 2005, Phys. Commun..

[4]  Devavrat Shah,et al.  Network Coding Meets TCP: Theory and Implementation , 2011, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[5]  Janardhan R. Iyengar,et al.  Concurrent Multipath Transfer Using SCTP Multihoming Over Independent End-to-End Paths , 2006, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking.

[6]  Gabriel-Miro Muntean,et al.  Performance Evaluation of Distributing Real-Time Video Over Concurrent Multipath , 2009, 2009 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference.

[7]  Randall R. Stewart,et al.  Stream Control Transmission Protocol , 2000, RFC.

[8]  Wu Jun,et al.  Reducing Receive Buffer Blocking in CMT based on SCTP using retransmission policy , 2011, 2011 IEEE 3rd International Conference on Communication Software and Networks.

[9]  Victor C. M. Leung,et al.  Network coding: A remedy for receiver buffer blocking in the concurrent multipath transfer of data over multi-hop wireless networks , 2014, 2014 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC).

[10]  Myron Hlynka,et al.  Queueing Networks and Markov Chains (Modeling and Performance Evaluation With Computer Science Applications) , 2007, Technometrics.

[11]  Yijie Han,et al.  Resequencing Delays Under Multipath Routing - Asymptotics in a Simple Queueing Model , 2006, Proceedings IEEE INFOCOM 2006. 25TH IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications.

[12]  Keyur C. Shah,et al.  Concurrent Multipath Transfer Using SCTP Multihoming , .

[13]  Devavrat Shah,et al.  ARQ for network coding , 2008, 2008 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory.

[14]  Rudolf Ahlswede,et al.  Network information flow , 2000, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory.

[15]  Chien-Chung Shen,et al.  Sctp-based concurrent multipath transfer in the contexts of multihop wireless networks and tcp-friendliness , 2010 .

[16]  Olivier Bonaventure,et al.  MultiPath TCP: From Theory to Practice , 2011, Networking.

[17]  Brendan Horan Practical Raspberry Pi , 2013, Apress.

[18]  Chien-Chung Shen,et al.  Performance Evaluation of Concurrent Multipath Transfer Using SCTP Multihoming in Multihop Wireless Networks , 2009, 2009 Eighth IEEE International Symposium on Network Computing and Applications.

[19]  Muriel Médard,et al.  XORs in the Air: Practical Wireless Network Coding , 2006, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking.

[20]  Devavrat Shah,et al.  Online network coding for optimal throughput and delay - the three-receiver case , 2008, 2008 International Symposium on Information Theory and Its Applications.

[21]  Guillaume J. Laurent,et al.  Improving Reinforcement Learning Speed for Robot Control , 2006, 2006 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[22]  Thomas Dreibholz,et al.  On the Use of Concurrent Multipath Transfer over Asymmetric Paths , 2010, 2010 IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference GLOBECOM 2010.

[23]  Sachin Katti,et al.  Trading structure for randomness in wireless opportunistic routing , 2007, SIGCOMM '07.

[24]  Peter Dayan,et al.  Q-learning , 1992, Machine Learning.

[25]  Muriel Médard,et al.  An algebraic approach to network coding , 2003, TNET.

[26]  Yishay Mansour,et al.  Learning Rates for Q-learning , 2004, J. Mach. Learn. Res..

[27]  Gary King,et al.  Logistic Regression in Rare Events Data , 2001, Political Analysis.

[28]  Peter Dayan,et al.  Technical Note: Q-Learning , 2004, Machine Learning.

[29]  Wu-chun Feng,et al.  DYNAMIC RIGHT-SIZING IN TCP. , 2001 .

[30]  Devavrat Shah,et al.  Network Coding Meets TCP , 2008, IEEE INFOCOM 2009.

[31]  Jörg Widmer,et al.  Effective Delay Control in Online Network Coding , 2009, IEEE INFOCOM 2009.

[32]  Satish K. Tripathi,et al.  Split TCP for mobile ad hoc networks , 2002, Global Telecommunications Conference, 2002. GLOBECOM '02. IEEE.

[33]  Janardhan R. Iyengar,et al.  Concurrent Multipath Transfer Using SCTP Multihoming: Introducing the Potentially-Failed Destination State , 2008, Networking.