Sinew : a system for improving the efficiency of wireless networks

Abstract

Wireless data networks are widespread and growing quickly. As their use increases, many wireless networks are becoming congested. In addition, as wireless data capability moves into ever-smaller devices, power becomes a significant issue. This thesis presents a system that increases network bandwidth and decreases energy use without changing existing network hardware or protocols. We use specialized proxy servers to transparently modify the traffic sent over the mobile link such that the total energy used by the receiver is reduced and the effective bandwidth is increased. Our techniques include optimizing packet size, eliminating unnecessary traffic, and masking wireless packet losses. We design and implement two proxies--one for access points and one for mobile devices--which when used together, achieve up to a 20% decrease in energy and 38% increase in throughput.