CS 4873 Computer Networks Special Class on November 11, 1997

Efficient Techniques for Bandwidth Management in Wireless Networks

Sajal K. Das
Center for Research in Wireless Computing (CReW)
Department of Computer Sciences
University of North Texas
Denton, TX 76203-1366

Abstract

The fusion of computer and communication technologies has heralded the age of the information super-highway over wireline and wireless networks, which is expected to enable a multitude of users at any place access information from anywhere at any time. This is the goal envisioned by the personal communication services (PCS). However, in spite of the tremendous growth of the mobile communication users, the radio frequency spectrum allocated by the FCC to this service is very limited. This resource bottleneck becomes even more prominent with the emergence of the next generation wireless multimedia applications like video-on-demand, WWW browsing and traveler information systems. Therefore, proper management of the available spectrum is necessary not only to accommodate high bandwidth applications with acceptable quality-of-service (QoS), but also to alleviate problems due to the sudden explosion of tele-traffic demand in the so called `hot' cells or regions in wireless networks.

In this talk we will design and analyze efficient load balancing techniques for bandwidth management in hot cells. The approach will be based on global borrowing of channels from underloaded cells and proper classification of the users according to their mobility patterns. Additionally, to handle real-time and non-real-time multimedia traffic over wireless links, we will develop a framework for QoS provisioning with the help of `bandwidth compaction' and optimistic reservation schemes for call admission and control. We will also how to model `bandwidth degradation' to enhance capacity of wireless systems.