TCP congestion window evolution and spatial reuse in MAIMETs

Abstract

A number of recent research studies have explored ways to improve TCP throughput in mobile ad hoc networks by improving its interaction with the IEEE 802.11 medium access control (MAC) layer. In particular, the hidden terminal effects caused by interference can impact TCP performance dramatically and have been dealt with in the past by restricting the maximum sending window size. We have developed a TCP variant, which instead, adjusts the sending rate increase to achieve competitive goodput for TCP connections. Extensive simulation experiments indicate that a slower sending rate increase during the congestion avoidance phase of TCP leads to improved performance for TCP Reno while eliminating the negative effects inherent in restricting the maximum sending window size. This work discusses the applicability of our TCP oriented solution to the hidden terminal effect, includes a performance comparison against existing solutions and discusses its performance merits under various mobility conditions. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.