Impact of transient CSMA/CA access delays on active bandwidth measurements

WLAN devices based on CSMA/CA access schemes have become a fundamental component of network deployments. In such wireless scenarios, traditional networking applications, tools, and protocols, with their built-in measurement techniques, are usually run unchanged. However, their actual interaction with the dynamics of underlying wireless systems is not yet fully understood. A relevant example of such built-in techniques is bandwidth measurement. When considering WLAN environments, various preliminary studies have shown that the application of results obtained in wired setups is not straightforward. Indeed, the contention for medium sharing among multiple users inherent to CSMA/CA access schemes has remarkable consequences on the behavior of and results obtained by bandwidth measurement techniques. In this paper, we focus on evaluating the effect of CSMA/CA-based contention on active bandwidth measurement techniques. As a result, it presents the rate response curve in steady state of a system with both FIFO and CSMA/CA-based contending cross-traffic. We also find out that the distribution of access delay shows a transient regime before reaching a stationary state. The duration of such transient regime is characterized and bounded. We also show how dispersion-based measurements that use a short number of probing packets are biased measurements of the achievable throughput, the origin of this bias lying on the transient detected in the access delay of probing packets. Overall, the results presented in this paper have several consequences that are expected to influence the design of bandwidth measurement tools as well as to better understand the results obtained with them in CSMA/CA links.

[1]  Masayuki Murata,et al.  ImTCP: TCP with an inline measurement mechanism for available bandwidth , 2006, Comput. Commun..

[2]  Richard G. Baraniuk,et al.  pathChirp: Efficient available bandwidth estimation for network paths , 2003 .

[3]  M. Frans Kaashoek,et al.  A measurement study of available bandwidth estimation tools , 2003, IMC '03.

[4]  Mats Björkman,et al.  An Analysis of Active End-to-end Bandwidth Measurements in Wireless Networks , 2006, 2006 4th IEEE/IFIP Workshop on End-to-End Monitoring Techniques and Services.

[5]  F.J. Garcia,et al.  A Novel Available Bandwidth Estimation and Tracking Algorithm , 2008, NOMS Workshops 2008 - IEEE Network Operations and Management Symposium Workshops.

[6]  Jasleen Kaur,et al.  RAPID: Shrinking the Congestion-Control Timescale , 2009, IEEE INFOCOM 2009.

[7]  Josep Mangues-Bafalluy,et al.  Framework for characterizing hardware deployed in Wireless Mesh Networking Testbeds , 2007, 2007 3rd International Conference on Testbeds and Research Infrastructure for the Development of Networks and Communities.

[8]  Mark Crovella,et al.  Measuring Bottleneck Link Speed in Packet-Switched Networks , 1996, Perform. Evaluation.

[9]  Robert A. Scholtz,et al.  Performance Analysis of , 1998 .

[10]  Mark Crovella,et al.  Dynamic Server Selection using Bandwidth Probing in Wide-Area Networks , 1996 .

[11]  Yong Zhu,et al.  Dynamic overlay routing based on available bandwidth estimation: A simulation study , 2006, Comput. Networks.

[12]  A. Girotra,et al.  Performance Analysis of the IEEE 802 . 11 Distributed Coordination Function , 2005 .

[13]  Zhao Wen-tao,et al.  Efficient available bandwidth estimation for network paths , 2008 .

[14]  Jitendra Padhye,et al.  Bandwidth estimation in broadband access networks , 2004, IMC '04.

[15]  kc claffy,et al.  Bandwidth estimation: metrics, measurement techniques, and tools , 2003, IEEE Netw..

[16]  Josep Mangues-Bafalluy,et al.  EXTREME: combining the ease of management of multi-user experimental facilities and the flexibility of proof of concept testbeds , 2006, 2nd International Conference on Testbeds and Research Infrastructures for the Development of Networks and Communities, 2006. TRIDENTCOM 2006..

[17]  Dmitri Loguinov,et al.  Multi-hop probing asymptotics in available bandwidth estimation: stochastic analysis , 2005, IMC '05.

[18]  Ren Wang,et al.  TCP with sender-side intelligence to handle dynamic, large, leaky pipes , 2005, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications.

[19]  István Csabai,et al.  Granular model of packet pair separation in Poissonian traffic , 2007, Comput. Networks.

[20]  Mats Björkman,et al.  Regression-Based Available Bandwidth Measurements , 2002 .

[21]  Jitendra Padhye,et al.  Routing in multi-radio, multi-hop wireless mesh networks , 2004, MobiCom '04.

[22]  Antônio Augusto de Aragão Rocha,et al.  An End-to-End Technique to Estimate the Transmission Rate of an IEEE 802.11 WLAN , 2007, 2007 IEEE International Conference on Communications.

[23]  D. Loguinov,et al.  A Queueing-Theoretic Foundation of Available Bandwidth Estimation: Single-Hop Analysis , 2007, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking.

[24]  Parameswaran Ramanathan,et al.  Packet-dispersion techniques and a capacity-estimation methodology , 2004, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking.

[25]  Shahrokh Valaee.  Bandwidth estimation and distributed traffic regulation in wireless local area networks , 2008, 2008 IEEE 19th International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications.

[26]  Manish Jain,et al.  End-to-end available bandwidth: measurement methodology, dynamics, and relation with TCP throughput , 2003, TNET.

[27]  K. Preston White,et al.  A comparison of five steady-state truncation heuristics for simulation , 2000, 2000 Winter Simulation Conference Proceedings (Cat. No.00CH37165).

[28]  Michael Bredel,et al.  A Measurement Study of Bandwidth Estimation in IEEE 802.11g Wireless LANs Using the DCF , 2008, Networking.

[29]  Peter Steenkiste,et al.  Evaluation and characterization of available bandwidth probing techniques , 2003, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun..

[30]  Manish Jain,et al.  End-to-end available bandwidth: measurement methodology, dynamics, and relation with TCP throughput , 2002, SIGCOMM 2002.

[31]  Attahiru Sule Alfa,et al.  Exact distribution of access delay in IEEE 802.11 DCF MAC , 2005, GLOBECOM '05. IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference, 2005..

[32]  Mark Claypool,et al.  Packet Dispersion in IEEE 802.11 Wireless Networks , 2006, Proceedings. 2006 31st IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks.

[33]  Peter Steenkiste,et al.  Improving TCP startup performance using active measurements: algorithm and evaluation , 2003, 11th IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols, 2003. Proceedings..

[34]  Darryl Veitch,et al.  PC based precision timing without GPS , 2002, SIGMETRICS '02.