Delay-Aware NUM System for Wireless Multi-Hop Networks

In order to design an effective utility-aware optimization framework for wireless multi-hop networks, it is necessary to explicitly incorporate the delay factor into the Network Utility Maximization (NUM) model. It is especially important in the case of multi-service networks aimed at serving both the file transfer and streaming media traffic. In this paper, we present a novel delay-aware NUM framework for wireless multi-hop networks. The application-layer system that has been derived from this framework consists of a delay-aware indirect flow control mechanism based on a system transporting virtual utility units and a packet forwarding component aimed at providing an approximation of Max-Weight Scheduling (MWS). To the best of the authors' knowledge the proposed solution is the first delay-aware NUM system interoperable with widely used protocols of the most typical wireless networking stack, such as TCP, UDP, IP, and 802.11 MAC.