HomePublicationsTechnical Report

Supporting Real-Time Communications in Overwater Multi-hop Networks
Ref: CISTER-TR-191204       Publication Date: 5, Nov, 2019

Abstract:
This thesis research plan focuses on aspects of communication and networking for overwater multi-hop networks aiming to support real-time and/or multimedia network traffic using commodity technologies. Special emphasis has been placed on the impact of tidal variations on the overall network performance, and how tailored and/or adaptive solutions based on network design, protocol adaptation, and routing, have a great potential to contribute in the mitigation of such an issue, thus enabling the support of real-time monitoring applications. We propose an approach to network design that uses a featured two-ray propagation model as a key consideration to provide better link design and network planning. We choose IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) based protocols using CSMA/CA as the underlying technology for the theoretical, experimental and simulation analysis. We consider a protocol adaptation approach based on a family of reconfigurable and adaptive TDMA (RA-TDMA) overlay protocols with recent applicability in dynamic multi-hop networks with high-bandwidth and low-latency requirements. We envisage further adaptations of its clockless synchronization feature in order to cope with the particular dynamics of tidal cycles. We aim to further improve the overall proposal by extending the results on network design into the routing/forwarding domain. In particular, we conceive a tailored routing scheme able to improve end-to-end delays regardless of tide level variations. The evaluation of such an approach is expected to be done from a real-time perspective, i.e., by means of the analysis of worst-case end-to-end delays and schedulability. As a result, a thesis research plan aiming to enable the support of real-time communication in large-scale overwater multi-hop networks affected by tidal variations is presented.

Miguel Gutiérrez Gaitán