Jekyll2026-06-12T06:03:57-07:00https://prashiddhath.github.io/feed.xmlPrashiddha’s PortfolioPhD student in Computer Science at Virginia Tech, researching cross-layer coordination in 5G networks.Prashiddha Dhoj Thapaprashiddha@vt.eduGSoC ‘23: Final Report on Joint Power and Rate Control in Userspace2023-09-25T00:00:00-07:002023-09-25T00:00:00-07:00https://prashiddhath.github.io/posts/2023/09/gsoc23-final-joint-power-rateThe final GSoC ‘23 report presents the completed joint power and rate controller, inspired by Minstrel-Blues. The controller selects rates using a utility function balancing throughput and interference cost, while dynamically adjusting reference and sample power levels based on success probability thresholds. Experiments on TP-Link WDR4900 routers (ATH9K, UDP via iperf3) and a MacBook Pro station (TCP via Flent) showed consistent 10-25% throughput improvements over kernel Minstrel-HT — even in single-link setups — attributed to better aggregation decisions and dynamic power selection. Future work targets multi-AP spatial reuse experiments and an independent power controller for newer closed-source WiFi chips.

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]]>Prashiddha Dhoj Thapaprashiddha@vt.eduGSoC ‘23: Midterm Report on Joint Power and Rate Control in Userspace2023-07-26T00:00:00-07:002023-07-26T00:00:00-07:00https://prashiddhath.github.io/posts/2023/07/gsoc23-midterm-joint-power-rateThe midterm report covers two workstreams. First, a passive variant of py-minstrel-ht was developed to validate that user space rate selection matches the kernel Minstrel-HT — running alongside the kernel algorithm and comparing MRR chain decisions. Multiple bugs were identified and fixed, bringing error rates below 0.5% across all MRR positions. Second, the proposed joint power and rate controller is introduced: it uses a utility function that trades off throughput against interference cost to select rates, and tracks safe and optimal power levels per rate through cyclic power sampling.

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]]>Prashiddha Dhoj Thapaprashiddha@vt.eduGSoC ‘23: Joint Power and Rate Control in Userspace for Freifunk OpenWrt Mesh & Access Networks2023-05-28T00:00:00-07:002023-05-28T00:00:00-07:00https://prashiddhath.github.io/posts/2023/05/gsoc23-intro-joint-power-rateThis post introduces the GSoC ‘23 project on joint power and rate control in user space. While rate control algorithms like Minstrel-HT optimize transmission rates, they typically use a fixed high power level that causes unnecessary interference in dense networks. The project extends the existing py-minstrel-ht package with a power tuning module that finds the lowest power level still delivering peak throughput. Three modes are planned: fixed power, power ceiling, and maximum throughput. The post provides background on the WPCA API that enables joint rate and power setting from user space.

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]]>Prashiddha Dhoj Thapaprashiddha@vt.eduFinal Report on Minstrel TX Rate Control in User space – GSoC ‘222022-09-12T00:00:00-07:002022-09-12T00:00:00-07:00https://prashiddhath.github.io/posts/2022/09/gsoc22-final-minstrel-userspaceThe final GSoC ‘22 report details all contributions to the user space Minstrel HT. New kernel functions were ported including dynamic retransmission calculation, sudden-death detection, and spatial stream reduction. The codebase was restructured into separate minstrel and sample modules, significantly reducing computation time. A rate-setting experiment framework was built to validate rate control behavior on real hardware. Additionally, a user space implementation of the Sample Rate algorithm (Bicket, 2005) was developed as a standalone Python package. All initial goals were met and exceeded.

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]]>Prashiddha Dhoj Thapaprashiddha@vt.eduUpdate on Minstrel TX Rate Control in User space – GSoC ‘222022-07-20T00:00:00-07:002022-07-20T00:00:00-07:00https://prashiddhath.github.io/posts/2022/07/gsoc22-midterm-minstrel-userspaceThe midterm report covers three main additions to the user space Minstrel HT. First, two new estimators were implemented: the Butterworth filter (now used by the kernel) and an Exponentially Discounted Averaging filter for research. Second, the output was redesigned to match the kernel debug format, producing human-readable rate statistics tables and CSV files for offline analysis. Third, a configuration module was added to let users tune filter parameters and rate control properties. The post concludes with a first analysis comparing the three filters on real WiFi hardware.

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]]>Prashiddha Dhoj Thapaprashiddha@vt.eduMinstrel TX Rate Control in User space – GSoC ‘222022-06-13T00:00:00-07:002022-06-13T00:00:00-07:00https://prashiddhath.github.io/posts/2022/06/gsoc22-intro-minstrel-userspaceThis introductory post for GSoC ‘22 covers the motivation and plan for implementing Minstrel HT — Linux’s default WiFi rate control algorithm — in user space for OpenWRT access points. Development in kernel space is restricted (no floating-point, high crash risk, limited debugging), making a Python-based user space variant valuable for research and experimentation. The post introduces the WiFi-Manager package and outlines the planned deliverables: a fully functional user space Minstrel HT with documentation, demo scripts, and performance comparisons against the kernel variant.

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