Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

Lule University of Technology

SMD161 Wireless Mobile Networks

LP4 - VT2006 Take-home exam
Maximum Credit: 100 points

Student name:

Personnumer:

Instructions

(1) This is an open-book, open-notes exam. You are allowed to use a computer and
Internet access.
(2) But the solution you submit must be your own work and you are not allowed to
give or take any unauthorized assistance. In other words, you should not discuss the
exam with anyone except your examiner. Violation of this code of conduct will be
reported to the university disciplinary committee.
(3) This exam consists of 7 questions and 8 pages.
(4) Answer each question in the space provided below each question. Clearly indicate if
you continue your answer elsewhere.
(5) The exam is worth a total of 100 points. The point value for each question is indicated.
(6) If a question is unclear, make sure to state the assumptions you make when answering
the question.
(7) The exam is due by 18:00 on Friday, 2nd June 2006 and must be submitted in the
same (red) box (labeled SMD161 Wireless Mobile Networks Assignments) used for
submitting homework assignments.

Page 1 of 8
Question 1 [10 points]

Suppose two Bluetooth piconets are deployed close to each other (within interference range). The
masters from both piconets are time synchronized. In absence of any inter-piconet coordination, by
bad luck, they end up choosing the same frequency hopping sequence, i.e., they start by choosing an
identical set of 32 hopping frequencies for transmission and an identical set of 32 hopping frequencies
for reception. Clearly, this results in high probability of collisions and almost no data is successfully
transmitted. Three students are assigned the task of minimizing the inter-piconet interference. They
propose the following solutions.

Andreas: The solution is simple. Just add a time offset of one time slot between the two piconets
and they will never interfere again.
Benny: You are wrong. We need to add a time offset of two time slots to ensure that the piconets
will not interfere again.
Camilla: I dont think changing the time offset will help. Given that Bluetooth randomly hops
among 79 frequencies, you should re-initialize the master devices and hope that they choose a
different hopping sequence.

You are called to resolve this argument. Which solution (A, B, or C) do you find most likely to
minimize inter-piconet interference? Clearly explain your choice of answer.

Question 2 [15 points]

Suppose two nodes A and B are using an 802.11-like protocol and each has a large set of packets
waiting in their queues to be transmitted to an access point (AP). For simplicity, assume that time is
divided into slots and that A, B, and AP are synchronized on slot boundaries. No other nodes are
transmitting in the network. The protocol details are as follows.
Each packet takes 1 slot, an ACK takes 1 slot, and each inter-frame spacing (IFS) is 1 slot.
A node waits for IFS time units after the completion of a packet transmission before attempting a
transmission (packet or ACK) or resuming a back-off counter.
The back-off counter is set to a random integer chosen uniformly from [0; 2 c+1 -1], where c is the
number of collisions incurred by the node on the current packet. Thus, the node selects a back-off
value from [0; 1] for the very first attempt, a back-off value from [0; 3] for the second attempt, and
so on.

Page 2 of 8
(a) Assuming that the sequence of packets arrive at the two nodes at time 0 and the channel is free
then, describe a possible sequence of transmission attempts in which B transmits 3 packets
successfully, while A has no successful packet transmissions during this period.

(b) Compute the probability that B completes 2 packet transmissions successfully, the first with no
collision and the second with at most one collision, before A has any successful packet transmission.

Question 3 [10 points]

A mobile ad-hoc network using the random waypoint mobility model with high node mobility is
expected to run a total of 20 CBR sessions. The network operator conducts a simulation study to
observe the average shortest path length between the various source-destination pairs. The resulting
histogram for the average shortest path length is shown below.
Number of sessions

2
1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Average shortest path
length (number of hops)

Page 3 of 8
For routing, the network operator has two choices: AODV or OLSR. Which routing protocol (AODV
or OLSR) would you recommend for use in this network? Clearly explain your choice of answer.
Your answer should at least address routing control overhead, end-to-end delay and packet delivery
ratio.

Question 4 [20 points]

Consider the following four scenarios used to design a cellular network with a system capacity of 4921
8
channels per 10 sq. m.

Scenario i j Cluster size (number of cells)

A 1 0 1
B 2 1 7
C 3 2 19
D 4 3 37

Answer the following questions. Show your calculations.

(a) Determine the number of unique channels (that is channels per cell) for each of the four scenarios
6
assuming that each cell covers an area of 10 sq. m.

(b) What is the frequency reuse factor and co-channel reuse factor for each cluster type?

Page 4 of 8
(c) Determine the cell radius if each cell can accommodate no more than 50 channels. (Hint: Area of
3 3 2
hexagonal cell is given by R where R is the cell radius.)
2

(d) Suppose that the frequencies from 824 MHz through 894 MHz are available to build this system
and that each duplex channel requires a total bandwidth of 50 KHz. Compute the required cell size for
8
each cluster type so that we achieve the target system capacity of 4921 channels per 10 sq. m.

(e) Compute the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) assuming that the path loss factor is 2.5. Assume
equal interference from all first tier interferers, and assume that interference from second and higher
tiers is negligible. Is the SIR increasing or decreasing as the number of cells per cluster increases? Is
this what you expect? Clearly explain why or why not.

Page 5 of 8
Question 5 [15 points]

Consider the network scenario shown in the figure below.

A router connects the home network, WLAN A (10.1.0.0/16), and the two foreign networks, WLAN B
(10.2.0.0/16) and WLAN C (10.3.0.0/16). The routing on all hosts is setup such that IP packets
between all networks are routed through this router. The home agent, HA (10.1.0.1), and the two
foreign agents, FA1 (10.2.0.1) and FA2 (10.3.0.1), are configured to handle triangle routing in
Mobile IP.

Mobile host MH1 is visiting WLAN B and has registered with home agent HA via foreign agent FA1.
Mobile host MH2 is visiting WLAN C and has registered with home agent HA via foreign agent FA2.

(a) What are the care-of-addresses (COAs) used for mobile hosts MH1 and MH2?

COA for MH1:

COA for MH2:

(b) The correspondent node CN and mobile host MH2 set up a two-way communication session, i.e.,
CN sends a packet to MH2 and then MH2 responds by a sending a packet back to CN. What is route
taken by each of those packets? You can express your answer using the names (FA1, FA2, HA,
Router, etc.) or using IP addresses.

Route taken by the packet from CN to MH2:

Route taken by the packet from MH2 to CN:

(c) Mobile hosts MH1 and MH2 set up a two-way communication session, i.e., MH1 sends a packet to
MH2 and then MH2 responds by a sending a packet back to MH1. What is the route taken by each of
those packets? You can express your answer using the names (FA1, FA2, HA, Router, etc.) or using IP
addresses.

Route taken by the packet from MH1 to MH2:

Route taken by the packet from MH2 to MH1:

Page 6 of 8
Question 6 [15 points]

Suppose two wireless hosts using IEEE 802.11b access the network via a common access point. One
host X has excellent channel conditions throughout (and is able to use the 11 Mbps mode), while the
other host Y has to adapt its bit rate due to varying channel conditions as it moves away from the
access point. When both hosts run TCP traffic, it is observed that host X experiences an increase in
average throughput. When both hosts run UDP traffic, it is observed that host X experiences a decrease
in average throughput. Three students offer conflicting explanations of the results observed in the
experiment.
Andreas: Obviously, host X obtains better throughput when running TCP. As we all know, TCP
is a reliable transport protocol while UDP is an unreliable transport protocol; thus, TCP is able to
get more data through over the wireless channel. We observed this in a paper discussed in Module
6 student seminar.
Benny: No, you are so wrong! This is the anomaly effect of 802.11b we studied in Module 3 and
poor performance of TCP over a wireless channel we studied in Module 6 in this course. Poor
channel conditions for host Y means packet losses. This causes host Ys TCP to use congestion
control and reduce its send rate. This allows host Xs TCP to gain more access to the channel.
When using UDP, the anomaly effect of 802.11b is clearly observed and host Xs throughput
reduces.
Camilla: Guys, you are both wrong! This is the TCP capture effect we studied in the Module 6
student seminar in this course. TCP on host X is able gain more access to the channel than UDP.

You are called to resolve this argument. Which do you find the most likely explanation (A, B, or C)
for the observed results? Clearly explain your choice of answer. Suggest an experiment that will help
prove your point.

Page 7 of 8
Question 7 [15 points]

The topology of an ad-hoc network is as shown below. Lines represent bidirectional links between
pairs of nodes.

(a) Complete the following table by specifying a single valid multipoint relay (MPR) set and
multipoint relay selector (MS) set for all nodes in the network. If there is a tie, assume that node with
the higher ID is selected as the MPR.

Node ID j MPR(j) MS(j)

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

(b) Based on the values you filled in the table above, specify the node IDs that are included in the TC
messages sent by node 2.

(c) Which nodes will forward (rebroadcast) the TC messages sent by node 2?

(d) Which nodes will forward (rebroadcast) the HELLO messages sent by node 2?

Page 8 of 8