TCP in Wireless Networks: Problems and Solutions

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed the beginning of "The Wireless Revolution". There has been an explosive growth of wireless networks, ranging from Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) and Wireless Wide-Area Networks (WWANs) to Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs). Such a fast growth in mobile computing and wireless networks gives a strong indication that mobile computing with wireless communication links will be an integral part of future internet works. The TCP has been widely used in today's Internet as transport layer protocol for providing reliable end-to-end data delivery. As in the Internet it is desirable that TCP must provide reliable data transfer services for communication within wireless networks and also between wireless networks and wired Internet. Thus it is very important that TCP performs well over all kinds of wireless networks so that wired Internet can be extended to wireless world. Unfortunately, standard TCP is not suitable for mobile hosts and their wireless links. This paper discusses the reasons associated with this unsuitability. Further it presents a survey of the research done so far to improve the performance of TCP over wireless networks. Finally, a comparison of the proposed protocols is done.