System Performance of Adaptive Bandwidth Traffic Shaping Mechanism for Residential Safety System Putri S. Khalid and Wahidah Hashim MIMOS Berhad, Technology Park Malaysia, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Email: {shahnim.khalid; wahidah.hashim}@mimos.my Abstract—A study on system performance of an adaptive traffic shaping mechanism for residential safety system is proposed and discussed in this paper. Traffic shaping is a way to help increase network performance by controlling the amount of data that flows into and out of the network. With new types of applications, traditional traffic shaping techniques may not be sufficient to solve problems in more dynamic clients’ applications. In order to solve the problem efficiently, we present an adaptive traffic shaping for distributed clients connected to the residential safety system which is enabled depending on client’s request made to the server, hence priority access is given. This method does improve the quality of service in the network as shown in both of our simulation and real data results by reducing almost 99% rate of discarded data in the network. In addition, the corresponding performance is further compared between audio and video data in order to see percentage of data lost when employing our adaptive traffic shaping mechanism. Finally, both distributed clients are compared in terms of data transferred whenever the mechanism is enabled. Simulations results obtained indicate the proposed algorithm is effective and feasible. Index Terms—traffic shaping, WLAN, distributed client, data aggregation, bandwidth priority access, traffic control I. INTRODUCTION Traffic shaping, also known as packet shaping, is the practice of regulating network data transfer to assure a certain level of performance, quality of service (QoS) [1]. The practice involves delaying the flow of packets that have been designated as less important or less desired than those of prioritized traffic streams. Regulating the flow of packets into a network is known as bandwidth throttling. Regulating the flow of packets out of a network is known as rate limiting. Traffic shaping is used for a number of purposes such as in a corporate environment; business-related traffic may be given priority over other traffic. For other functionality, traffic shaping could be an integral component of a two-tiered internet, in which certain customers or services would get traffic priority for a premium charge. In a specific healthcare environment, a wireless medium, like WLAN, is considered promising for use in Manuscript received September 5, 2013; revised August 1, 2014. data transport [2]. Similar approach can also be adopted for the residential safety. WiFi uses the unlicensed ISM (Industrial, Scientific, and Medical) band centered at 2.4 GHz. Data rates above 11 MHz can be achieved; however, it is more typical to see data flow at 5 MHz or less. Fully computerized residential safety information systems are desired in Malaysia. A typical information system consists of server computers, terminals, a database, and a LAN. The idea of residential safety information system can provide quick communication between guards, policemen and residents with the immediate dissemination of criminal or emergency information. Installation of a wireless data communication system compatible with an emergency information system has been reported to improve efficiency [3]. Voice communication system is also necessary to transmit instructions quickly in emergencies, such as a sudden report of break-in and triggering alarm of a house. In order to attain an environment in which access and the sharing of information are possible anywhere and at all times, a telecom infrastructure with a mobile communications network is very important to voice and data communication. However, the allocated bandwidth to transfer such voice and data communication tends to fluctuate in mobile environment and this is bad for emergency situation when it has to be shared with other residents that use the network to get connected to internet. As an example, a patrolling guard might need to compete for the bandwidth with other users that are less urgent. In worst situation, the emergency data might fail to be transmitted due to the congested network. In this paper, a system performance of selected traffic shaping technique is studied and reported. Based on the traditional bandwidth throttling traffic shaping, the technique is further enhanced and improved for residential safety dynamic environment. This is proposed as an adaptive bandwidth traffic shaping mechanism (ABTS). The conducted study was preliminarily simulated and later was taken into an actual environment to observe performance of the proposed mechanism. The paper is organized as follows. In the next section, the proposed system architecture is described, and some background information of the mechanism is given. In Section III, the proposed system model is presented. Section IV depicts system methodology to illustrate the Lecture Notes on Information Theory Vol. 2, No. 2, June 2014 141 ©2014 Engineering and Technology Publishing doi: 10.12720/lnit.2.2.141-145