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

移动多播提供了一种高效且灵活的方式，可以将数据或信息从一个源同时传播到多个与位置无关的接收器。然而，通过移动网络为多播服务提供有效的流量和错误控制会带来许多有线或单播网络中不会遇到的挑战。首先，多播本身给流量和错误控制协议带来了可扩展性问题。其次，由于无线噪声、信道衰落和频繁切换，无线链路上的随机丢失概率比有线网络高得多。第三，无线链路引入了非拥塞损耗和异构损耗特性，这需要新的流量和错误控制方案。最后，公共网络中单播与多播、有线与无线、实时与非实时应用程序的共存导致了服务质量（QoS）要求和公平性问题的显着多样性。不幸的是，当前支持移动多播的新流和错误控制协议的开发进展未能跟上这些挑战的步伐。如果不立即在这一领域投入研究工作，这些挑战可能会减慢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网络上的多播服务所施加的显着不同的流量和错误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颖的架构，该架构使用解耦的流和错误结构，能够灵活集成不同的流和错误控制协议，以有效地满足任何给定的特定移动多播传输的 QoS 要求。另一方面，所提出的架构还允许不同的流和错误控制协议在公共网络中共存。虽然在本提案中所提出的架构仅关注应用于移动网络上的多播服务的流量和错误控制，但它是一种通用协议开发方法，因此可以有益于协议开发的许多其他应用。本提案将详细探讨的具体研究主题/领域包括：开发可有效集成不同流和错误协议的灵活架构，以满足移动网络上组播服务的不同 QoS 要求。设计统一/通用接口技术/结构，以灵活集成不同类型的解耦流和错误协议。研究多种协议的公平性和共存问题及其与互联网中现有 TCP 流量的 TCP 友好性。验证和评估所提出的建议通过各种分析方法、仿真工具和测试平台系统，研究体系结构、流和错误协议以及协议接口技术。智力价值：所提出的研究项目预计将对通用体系结构的开发产生重要影响，该体系结构用于为下一代互联网中的移动多播和其他服务设计多种流和错误控制协议的灵活集成。目前正在与多家公司进行行业合作，以获取反馈并在现实环境中测试开发的结果，并实现技术转让。 PI 与 IBM T. J. Watson 研究中心和 TI 数字视频通信部门正在进行持续的研究合作，该项目将充分利用这些合作。 更广泛的影响：该提案的教育部分侧重于在德克萨斯 A&M 大学建立强大的计算机网络本科生和研究生项目。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：开发一门新的移动无线网络研究生课程。为计算机网络本科课程设计一套实验室。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.