Cross-Layer Optimization of Voice over IP in Wireless Mesh Networks

Abstract: Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) have emerged as a promising network technology, which combines the benefits of cellular networks and Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). In a WMN mesh routers wirelessly relay traffic on behalf of other mesh routers or clients and thereby provide coverage areas comparable to cellular networks, while having the low complexity and low costs of WLANs. As Voice over IP (VoIP) is a very important Internet service, it is critical for the success of WMNs to support high quality VoIP. However, currentWMNs are not adapted well for VoIP. The capacity and scalability of single-radio WMNs is low, especially for small packet transmissions of VoIP calls, because the MAC and PHY layer overhead for small packets is high. The scalability of multiradio/multi-channel WMNs is usually higher, since fewer nodes contend for a channel. However channel scheduling might be required, which can lead to excessive delay and jitter and result in poor VoIP quality. In this thesis we investigate how to deliver high quality VoIP in single radio and multi-radio networks by using cross-layer optimization. For single radio WMNs, we consider the use of IP packet aggregation and IEEE 802.11e transmission opportunities. We conclude that IP packet aggregation greatly improves the capacity and thereby the scalability of WMNs. We show that the key for providing good quality is to artificially delay packets prior to aggregation. We propose a distributed cross-layer optimization system, which, based on Fuzzy Logic Inference, derives an aggregation delay that enhances the capacity and quality. For multi-radio/multi-channel WMNs, we demonstrate the importance of qualityof- service-aware channel scheduling. We develop a quality-of-serviceaware channel scheduler that compared to a basic round-robin scheme significantly reduces jitter and in that way increases VoIP quality. Our analysis shows that there is a trade-off between the jitter of high priority VoIP traffic and the throughput of background TCP traffic. The proposed optimizations significantly increase the capacity of singleradio and multi-radio WMNs. This allows network operators to serve more users with an existing mesh infrastructure or provide better service delivery to existing users.