Support for 5G Mission-Critical Applications in Software-Defined IEEE 802.11 Networks
1
Department of Computer Science, University of Antwerp–imec, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium
2
School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA
3
Department of Electronics–ICT, University of Antwerp–imec, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium
4
Institute of Informatics–INF, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul 91501-970, Brazil
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Pedro Merino-Gómez
Sensors 2021, 21(3), 693; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21030693
Received: 14 December 2020 / Revised: 10 January 2021 / Accepted: 18 January 2021 / Published: 20 January 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 5G Mission-Critical Applications)
With the emergence of 5G networks and the stringent Quality of Service (QoS) requirements of Mission-Critical Applications (MCAs), co-existing networks are expected to deliver higher-speed connections, enhanced reliability, and lower latency. IEEE 802.11 networks, which co-exist with 5G, continue to be the access choice for indoor networks. However, traditional IEEE 802.11 networks lack sufficient reliability and they have non-deterministic latency. To dynamically control resources in IEEE 802.11 networks, in this paper we propose a delay-aware approach for Medium Access Control (MAC) management via airtime-based network slicing and traffic shaping, as well as user association while using Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). To fulfill the QoS requirements, we use Software-Defined Networking (SDN) for airtime-based network slicing and seamless handovers at the Software-Defined Radio Access Network (SD-RAN), while traffic shaping is done at the Stations (STAs). In addition to throughput, channel utilization, and signal strength, our approach monitors the queueing delay at the Access Points (APs) and uses it for centralized network management. We evaluate our approach in a testbed composed of APs controlled by SD-RAN and SDN controllers, with STAs under different workload combinations. Our results show that, in addition to load balancing flows across APs, our approach avoids the ping-pong effect while enhancing the QoS delivery at runtime. Under varying traffic demands, our approach maintains the queueing delay requirements of 5 ms for most of the experiment run, hence drawing closer to MCA requirements.
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Keywords:
SDN; MAC management; airtime-based network slicing; traffic shaping; user association; IEEE 802.11 networks; SD-RAN; MCDA
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MDPI and ACS Style
Isolani, P.H.; Kulenkamp, D.J.; Marquez-Barja, J.M.; Granville, L.Z.; Latré, S.; Syrotiuk, V.R. Support for 5G Mission-Critical Applications in Software-Defined IEEE 802.11 Networks. Sensors 2021, 21, 693. https://doi.org/10.3390/s21030693
AMA Style
Isolani PH, Kulenkamp DJ, Marquez-Barja JM, Granville LZ, Latré S, Syrotiuk VR. Support for 5G Mission-Critical Applications in Software-Defined IEEE 802.11 Networks. Sensors. 2021; 21(3):693. https://doi.org/10.3390/s21030693
Chicago/Turabian StyleIsolani, Pedro H.; Kulenkamp, Daniel J.; Marquez-Barja, Johann M.; Granville, Lisandro Z.; Latré, Steven; Syrotiuk, Violet R. 2021. "Support for 5G Mission-Critical Applications in Software-Defined IEEE 802.11 Networks" Sensors 21, no. 3: 693. https://doi.org/10.3390/s21030693
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