CAREER: A Flexible Flow- and Error-Control Protocol-Integration Architecture for Multicast Services Over Mobile Networks

移动的多播提供了一种从一个源向多个位置无关的接收机同时传播数据或信息的高效且灵活的方式。然而，在移动的网络上为多播服务提供有效的流和差错控制提出了许多在有线或单播网络中没有遇到的挑战。首先，多播本身在流和差错控制协议中施加了可扩展性问题。第二，由于无线噪声、信道衰落和频繁的跳频，无线链路上的随机丢失概率远高于有线网络。第三，无线链路引入了非拥塞损耗和异构损耗特性，这需要新的流量和差错控制方案。最后，单播与组播、有线与无线以及实时与非实时应用在公共网络内的共存导致服务质量（QoS）要求和公平性问题的显著多样性。不幸的是，目前的进展，在新的流和差错控制协议的发展，支持移动的组播没有跟上这些挑战。如果不立即在这一领域投入研究，这些挑战可能会减缓我们开发下一代互联网的速度。没有一种“一刀切”的协议可以通过最好地满足移动的网络上的多播服务所带来的各种流量和差错控制要求来解决所有上述挑战。为了克服这个问题，我们建议开发一种新的架构，使用解耦的流和错误结构，使不同的流和错误控制协议的灵活集成，以有效地适应任何给定的特定的移动的组播传输的QoS要求。另一方面，所提出的架构还允许不同的流量和错误控制协议共存于一个共同的网络。虽然建议的架构只集中在流量和错误控制应用到多播服务在移动的网络中的建议，这是一个通用的协议开发方法，从而可以在许多其他应用程序的协议开发是有益的。本提案中将详细探讨的具体研究主题/领域包括：.开发灵活的体系结构，在该体系结构上可以有效地集成不同的流和错误协议，以满足移动的网络上组播服务的不同QoS要求。设计统一/通用的接口技术/结构，以灵活集成不同类型的解耦流和错误协议。研究多个协议的公平性和共存性问题，以及它们与Internet中当前存在的TCP流量的TCP友好性。通过各种分析方法、仿真工具和测试平台系统，验证和评估建议的架构、流量和错误协议以及协议接口技术。预计该研究项目将对通用架构的发展产生重要影响，该通用架构用于设计移动的组播和其他服务的多个流和差错控制协议的灵活集成。一代互联网。正在与一些公司进行工业合作，以获得反馈，并在现实生活中测试开发的结果，并实现技术转让。PI与IBM T.更广泛的影响：该提案的教育部分侧重于在德克萨斯A M大学建立一个强大的计算机网络本科生和研究生课程。为了实现这一目标，PI计划在未来几年内开展一系列教育项目：开发一个新的移动的无线网络研究生课程。计算机网络本科实验设计将计划的研究原型集成为无线网络研究生课程的测试平台。

Mobile multicast provides a highly efficient and flexible way of simultaneously disseminating data or information from one source to multiple location-independent receivers. However, providing the efficient flow and error-control for multicast services over the mobile networks presents many chal- lenges that are not encountered in the wired or unicast networks. First, multicast itself imposes the scalability problems in both flow and error control protocols. Second, random-loss probability over the wireless links are much higher than the wired networks due to the wireless noise, channel fad- ing, and frequent handoffs. Third, wireless link introduces non-congestion losses and heterogeneous loss properties, which requires the new flow and error-control schemes. Finally, the coexistence of unicast with multicast, wired with wireless, and real-time with non-real-time applications within a common network causes the significant diversity of Quality of Services (QoS) requirements and fair- ness issues. Unfortunately, the current advances in the development of new flow and error-control protocols supporting mobile multicast are not keeping pace with these challenges. Without investing immediate research effort in this area, these challenges will likely slow the rate at which we develop the next-generation Internet.There is no "one-size fits all" protocol that can solve all the above challenges by best meeting the significantly diverse flow and error-control requirements imposed by multicast services over mobile networks. To overcome this problem, we propose to develop a novel architecture which, using the decoupled flow and error structure, enables flexible integrations of different flow and error control protocols to efficiently fit the QoS requirements for any given specific mobile multicast transport. On the other hand, the proposed architecture also allows different flow and error-control protocols to coexist in a common network. While the proposed architecture focuses only on the flow and error control applied to multicast services over mobile networks in this proposal, it is a generic protocol developing methodology and thus can be beneficial in many other applications of protocol development. The specific research topics/areaB to be explored in detail in this proposal include:.Develop the flexible architecture on which different flow and error protocols can be integrated efficiently to meet the different QoS requirements for multicast services over mobile networks..Design the uniform/general interfacing techniques/structures for flexible integrations of different types of decoupled flow and error protocols..Investigate the fairness and coexistence issues of multiple protocols and their TCP-friendliness with currently existing TCP-traffics in the Internet..Validate and evaluate the proposed architecture, flow and error protocols, and protocol interfacing techniques through various analytical approaches, simulation tools, and testbed systems.Intellectual merit: The proposed research project is expected to have an important impact on the development of the general-purpose architecture for designing flexible integrations of multiple flow and error-control protocols for mobile multicast and other services in the next-generation Inter- net. The industrial collaboration is being pursued with a number of companies to obtain feedback and test the developed results in a real-life setting, and enable the technology transfer. The PI has ongoing research collaboration with IBM T. J. Watson Research Center and TI Digital Video Communication Department that will be leveraged upon in this project.Broader impact: The education component of the proposal focuses on building a strong un- dergraduate and graduate program in Computer Networking at Texas A&M University. To achieve this goal, the PI plans to undertake a number of educational projects during the next few years:.Develop a new graduate level course on mobile wireless networks..Design a lab set for the undergraduate course on Computer Networking..Integrate the planned research prototype as a test bed for graduate course on wireless networks.