Quality-aware voice convergecast in mobile low power wireless networks

Abstract

Several recent disasters have shown the critical need for reliable voice communication for mobile users. Low power ad hoc wireless networks have become a promising alternative for voice communication in emergency scenarios because of their low cost and portability. In order to increase communication amongst moving emergency personnel and disaster victims, we have developed a novel convergecast voice streaming system that guarantees robust voice quality in a low power wireless network. The system integrates routing and mobility-aware admission control along with voice compression adjustment to ensure the quality of voice streams. The system is evaluated using Arduino Due micro-controllers with XBee 802.15.4 radios. We create mobile scenarios by placing the Arduino Dues on iRobot Create mobile robots. Our results show that our system can adequately adapt to changing network and routing conditions to deliver sufficient voice quality by maintaining a certain number of concurrent voice streams. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first complete system for quality-aware voice streaming in mobile lower power wireless networks.