Bit-rate selection in wireless networks

This thesis evaluates bit-rate selection techniques to maximize throughput over wireless links that are capable of multiple bit-rates. The key challenges in bit-rate selection are determining which bit-rate provides the most throughput and knowing when to switch to another bit-rate that would provide more throughput. This thesis presents the SampleRate bit-rate selection algorithm. SampleRate sends most data packets at the bit-rate it believes will provide the highest throughput. SampleRate periodically sends a data packet at some other bit-rate in order to update a record of that bit-rate's loss rate. SampleRate switches to a different bit-rate if the throughput estimate based on the other bit-rate's recorded loss rate is higher than the current bit-rate's throughput. Measuring the loss rate of each supported bit-rate would be inefficient because sending packets at lower bit-rates could waste transmission time, and because successive unicast losses are time-consuming for bit-rates that do not work. SampleRate addresses this problem by only sampling at bit-rates whose lossless throughput is better than the current bit-rate's throughput. SampleRate also stops probing at a bit-rate if it experiences several successive losses. This thesis presents measurements from indoor and outdoor wireless networks that demonstrate that SampleRate performs as well or better than other bit-rate selection algorithms.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Bicket, John C. (John Charles)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Robert T. Morris.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34116

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34116