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This paper analyzes the wireless connectivity of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) swarm in the presence of (un)intentional external interference from the ground. Different from existing studies, the swarm UAVs fly independently around a given three-dimensional (3D) location and are all within a 3D spherical space. Closed-form bounds are delivered for the average outage probability of a UAV from its nearest neighbor in the swarm, and the density of the swarm, which allows the swarm to operate uninterruptedly in the presence of the interference. Our analysis involves closed-form approximations of the instantaneous outage probability of a UAV from its nearest neighbor by using the first-order Marcum $Q$ -function and the zero-th order modified Bessel function of the first kind. The analysis also involves applying Jensen's inequality to the instantaneous outage probability to bound the average outage probability and the density of the swarm. Corroborated by simulations, our analysis is accurate, and useful to evaluate the impact of external interference on the connectivity of UAV swarms. Interesting insights are shed on the connectivity and coverage of the UAV swarm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the threat that an aerial eavesdropper can pose to terrestrial wireless communications, from an information-theoretic point of view. The achievable ergodic and the average $\epsilon $ -outage secrecy rates with no channel state information at the transmitter (i.e., with no CSIT) are analyzed for a transmitter–receiver pair on the ground, in the presence of an aerial eavesdropper which flies a random trajectory following a smooth turn (ST) mobility model in a three-dimensional (3D) space. The ST mobility model induces a uniform distribution (of the eavesdropper’s waypoints) within the considered 3D volume. Closed-form asymptotic approximations of the achievable secrecy rates are derived based on the almost sure convergence and non-trivial mathematical manipulations. Validated by simulations, our analysis is tight and reveals that the ground transmission is particularly vulnerable to aerial eavesdropping which can be carried out in a distance without being noticed. 3D spherical regions are identified, within which the secrecy rates vanish. This sheds useful insights to protect terrestrial wireless networks from aerial eavesdropping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of a finite relay buffer on the throughput of two-way relay is analyzed from a new queueing theoretic point of view. Distinctively from recent Markov model based analyses, the proposed queueing theoretic analysis is able to infer closed-form asymptotic upper bounds for the throughput, shed valuable insights, and point out limitations in the recent analyses. Validated by simulations, our queueing theoretic analysis reveals that the throughput is increasingly insusceptible to the size of the relay buffer, as the buffer enlarges. Moreover, locking the relay in transmitting xored packets can hardly improve the throughput, especially under balanced channel conditions. This is due to the fact that the relay queues stabilize nonempty, and hence, xored packets are forwarded in most cases. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Multi-hop relay can effectively improve the average packet loss rate (PLR) of vehicular ad hoc networks within a particular zone of interest. Challenges arise from analyzing the average PLR affected by distributed relay selections, which depend on the mobility of vehicles, the wireless channel conditions, and media access control (MAC). In this letter, we propose an average PLR analysis model taking into account the above three factors. However, the closed-form expression for the average PLR is intractable mainly due to the multiple integral of the joint distance distribution integrating with the channel conditions and vehicle mobility. An explicit expression for the upper bound of the average PLR is obtained by using Taylor series expansion, Holder’s inequality, and the relay probability relaxation, which can facilitate the selection of the parameters at the physical and MAC layers for a better PLR. Simulation results validate our analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Comparison studies on timer-based distributed cooperative retransmission protocols are challenging, given a variety of backoff techniques. We propose a new unified model, which can characterize a wide range of cooperative retransmission protocols. The key idea is a new trellis diagram that extrapolates the retransmission probabilities in each timeslot to the entire cooperative process. Following the trellis, performance metrics, such as success rate and collision intensity, can be derived in a structured manner. The new trellis model, coupled with Markov techniques, can be also extended to analyze the distributed binary exponential backoff processes of cooperative retransmissions. Confirmed by simulations, the proposed trellis model accurately reveals the impact of the relays' relative locations and density on different protocols. Our model also has the potential to be used as a management tool to adaptively configure protocol parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Biological epidemic models, widely used to model computer virus propagations, suffer from either limited scalability to large networks, or accuracy loss resulting from simplifying approximations. In this paper, a discrete-time absorbing Markov process is constructed to precisely characterize virus propagations. Conducting eigenvalue analysis and Jordan decomposition to the process, we prove that the virus extinction rate, i.e., the rate at which the Markov process converges to a virus-free absorbing state, is bounded. The bounds, depending on the infection and curing probabilities, and the minimum degree of the network topology, have closed forms. We also reveal that the minimum curing probability for a given extinction rate requirement, specified through the upper bound, is independent of the explicit size of the network. As a result, we can interpret the extinction rate requirement of a large network with that of a much smaller one, evaluate its minimum curing requirement, and achieve simplifications with negligible loss of accuracy. Simulation results corroborate the effectiveness of the interpretation, as well as its analytical accuracy in large networks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs), vehicles driving along highways can be grouped into clusters to facilitate communication. The design of the clusters, e.g., size and geographical span, has significant impacts on communication quality. Such design is affected by the Media Access Control (MAC) operations at the Data Link layer, the wireless channel conditions at the Physical layer, and the mobility of the vehicles. Previous works investigated these effects separately. In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis that integrates the three important factors into one model. In particular, we model an unsaturated VANET cluster with a Markov chain by introducing an idle state. The wireless channel fading and vehicle mobility are integrated by explicitly deriving the joint distribution of inter-vehicle distances. Closed-form expressions of network performance measures, such as packet loss probability and system throughput, are derived. Our model, validated by extensive simulations, is able to accurately characterize VANET performance. Our analysis reveals intrinsic dependencies between cluster size, vehicle speed, traffic demand, and window size, as well as their impacts on the overall throughput and packet loss of the cluster. Performance evaluation results demonstrate the practical value of the proposed model in providing guidelines for VANET design and management. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Large scale deployment of machine-to-machine (M2M) communication networks hinges on the cost and energy efficient design of the embedded devices. Standard WLAN power save mechanisms, which are designed for human communications, experience performance degradation and unbalanced energy consumptions in M2M communication networks. We develop a novel analytical model that takes into account the fundamentally different network architecture and traffic patterns of M2M communications. Our model accurately characterizes the high contention and long packet delay found in M2M communication networks, while previous models underestimate such measures. To combat such performance decline, we propose a new algorithm that enhances existing power save mechanisms to extend the lifetime of a M2M communication network. We call this the Offset ListenInterval (OLi) Algorithm. The OLi algorithm spreads the M2M traffic evenly with calculated offsets to alleviate network contention and reduce packet delay. Our analytical model is then used to evaluate the energy efficiency of our OLi algorithm and compare with the standard power save mechanisms. Our results show that the proposed OLi algorithm extends the lifetime by up to 40%, and scales up to thousands of nodes in a M2M communication network. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although differentiated services (DiffServ) networks have been well discussed in the past several years, a conventional Active Queue Management (AQM) algorithm still cannot provide low-complexity and cost-effective differentiated bandwidth allocation in DiffServ. In this paper, a novel AQM scheme called CHOKeR is designed to protect TCP flows effectively. We adopt a method from CHOKeW to draw multiple packets randomly from the output buffer. CHOKeR enhances the drawing factor by using a multistep increase and single-step decrease (MISD) mechanism. In order to explain the features of CHOKeR, an analytical model is used, followed by extensive simulations to evaluate the performance of CHOKeR. The analytical model and simulation results demonstrate that CHOKeR achieves proportional bandwidth allocation between different priority levels, fairness guarantee among equal priority flows, and protection of TCP against high-speed unresponsive flows when network congestion occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Quality of Service (QoS) and queue management are important issues for IEEE 802.11 systems. However, existing 2-dimensional (2-D) Markov chain models of 802.11 systems are unable to capture the complete QoS performance and queueing behavior due to the lack of an adequate finite buffer model. We present a 3-dimensional (3-D) Markov chain that integrates the 802.11 system contention resolution and queueing processes into one model. The 3^rd dimension, that models the queue length, allows us to accurately capture important QoS measures, delay and loss, plus throughput and queue length, for realistic 802.11 systems with finite buffer under finite load. We derive an efficient method for solving the steady state probabilities of the Markov chain. Our 3-D Markov chain is the first finite buffer model defined and solved for 802.11 systems. The solutions, validated by extensive simulations, capture the system dynamics over a wide range of traffic load, buffer capacity, and network size. Our 3-D model points to the existence of an effective maximum throughput and shows its relationship with buffer capacity. We demonstrate that our 3-D model can also be used in resource allocation to determine adequate buffer sizes under a particular QoS constraint. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]