Browsing by Author "Zulu, Docas Dudu"

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    Call capacity for voice over Internet Protocol on wireless mesh networks
    (Telkom, 2010) Zulu, Docas Dudu; Tucker, William David
    This paper describes work in progress on call capacity optimization for voice over Internet Protocol on wireless mesh networks. In a developing country such as South Africa, evidence has shown that rural inhabitants find it difficult to afford the voice services offered by cellular networks. Voice over Internet Protocol is known for its affordability relative to cellular voice services, therefore deploying such services for rural communities will not only benefit rural inhabitants but also offer economic advantages to service providers. We are interested in the provision of voice services with rural wireless mesh networks. Unfortunately voice on mesh networks can experience packet loss and delays that cause reduction in voice quality. Transmission of small voice packets over wireless mesh networks imposes high overhead that leads to a tremendous decrease in call capacity. Therefore, we aim to study the performance of voice over 802.11 wireless mesh networks and evaluate packet aggregation mechanisms that merge small voice packets into a single large packet, in order to preserve voice quality with more calls. We will implement and evaluate packet aggregations mechanisms on a 'mesh potato' network with iterative cycles of laboratory experiments using a network simulator to collect data for performance evaluation.
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    Packet aggregation for voice over internet protocol on wireless mesh networks
    (University of the Western Cape, 2012) Zulu, Docas Dudu; Tucker, William
    This thesis validates that packet aggregation is a viable technique to increase call capacity for Voice over Internet Protocol over wireless mesh networks. Wireless mesh networks are attractive ways to provide voice services to rural communities. Due to the ad-hoc routing nature of mesh networks, packet loss and delay can reduce voice quality. Even on non-mesh networks, voice quality is reduced by high overhead, associated with the transmission of multiple small packets. Packet aggregation techniques are proven to increase VoIP performance and thus can be deployed in wireless mesh networks. Kernel level packet aggregation was initially implemented and tested on a small mesh network of PCs running Linux, and standard baseline vs. aggregation tests were conducted with a realistic voice traffic profile in hop-to-hop mode. Modifications of the kernel were then transferred to either end of a nine node 'mesh potato' network and those tests were conducted with only the end nodes modified to perform aggregation duties. Packet aggregation increased call capacity expectedly, while quality of service was maintained in both instances, and hop-to-hop aggregation outperformed the end-to-end configuration 4:1. However, implementing hop-to-hop in a scalable fashion is prohibitive, due to the extensive kernel level debugging that must be done to achieve the call capacity increase. Therefore, end-to-end call capacity increase is an acceptable compromise for eventual scalable deployment of voice over wireless mesh networks.
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    Packet aggregation for voice over internet protocol on wireless mesh networks
    (University of the Western Cape, 2012) Zulu, Docas Dudu; Tucker, William D.
    This thesis validates that packet aggregation is a viable technique to increase call ca-pacity for Voice over Internet Protocol over wireless mesh networks. Wireless mesh networks are attractive ways to provide voice services to rural communities. Due to the ad-hoc routing nature of mesh networks, packet loss and delay can reduce voice quality.Even on non-mesh networks, voice quality is reduced by high overhead, associated with the transmission of multiple small packets. Packet aggregation techniques are proven to increase VoIP performance and thus can be deployed in wireless mesh networks. Kernel level packet aggregation was initially implemented and tested on a small mesh network of PCs running Linux, and standard baseline vs. aggregation tests were conducted with a realistic voice tra c pro le in hop-to-hop mode. Modi cations of the kernel were then transferred to either end of a nine node 'mesh potato' network and those tests were conducted with only the end nodes modi ed to perform aggregation duties. Packet ag- gregation increased call capacity expectedly, while quality of service was maintained in both instances, and hop-to-hop aggregation outperformed the end-to-end con guration. However, implementing hop-to-hop in a scalable fashion is prohibitive, due to the extensive kernel level debugging that must be done to achieve the call capacity increase.Therefore, end-to-end call capacity increase is an acceptable compromise for eventual scalable deployment of voice over wireless mesh networks.