Title: 2-level framing in HomePlug AV

Speaker: Richard E. Newman

Abstract:
Data transmission over the powerline, as in wireless transmission, is
subject to severe impairments.  Impulse noise may damage one or more
symbols, which at high data rates can affect a considerable amount of
data.  Forward error correction to handle this type of error is
costly, and so retransmission schemes are used when they are feasible.
However, when PHY data rates are high, the fixed costs associated with
transmitting an MPDU requires that large amounts of data be sent
within each MPDU, for framing efficiency.  If errors cause the entire
MPDU to be retransmitted, however, this tends to force the frames to
carry relatively little data.

To combat this problem, HomePlug AV uses two-level framing.  Here, the
MSDUs from the host (or higher layer entity) are turned into MAC
frames with minimal overhead, and these are then formed into a stream.
The MAC Frame stream is then segmented at fixed boundaries, and these
fixed size segments form the payload of PHY blocks (PBs).  Each PB has
the information needed for error detection, duplicate detection,
reassembly, and resynchronization of the MAC Frame stream in the event
of unrecoverable loss.

We analyzed and simulated three basic framing schemes.  These will be
described and compared for performance.  Two level framing is shown to
be far superior to the other basic approaches.

Biography:
Richard (Nemo) Newman has been on the faculty of the Department of
Computer & Information Science & Engineering at the University of
Florida since 1986.  He earned his B.A. in Mathematics in 1981 from
New College in Sarasota, FL, and completed his PhD in Computer
Science in 1986 at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY.  He
received the University-wide Superior Accomplishment Award in 1996
for outstanding service to UF.

Courses he has taught include graduate and undergraduate operating
systems, computer networks, and computer and network security, as well
as graduate courses in algorithms, formal languages and computation
theory, computational complexity, distributed operating systems, and
seminar courses in cryptography and cryptographic protocols.  Over one
hundred masters and PhDs from UF have had him as their advisor.

His research areas include networks, security, and distributed
systems.  He has worked in the area of powerline communications for
over seven years with Intellon Corporation, participating in the
development of the HomePlug 1.0 and HomePlug AV standards.

Dr. Newman has received over $4 million in contracts and grants, and
has published over 70 refereed technical papers.  He is a member of
the IEEE, IEEE Computer Society, IEEE Technical Committee on Powerline
Communication, and IEEE Standards Association.

You may contact him at nemo@cise.ufl.edu, or at +1-352-392-1488, or
visit his web page at http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~nemo/.