Incorporating small length data cells in TCP frame to reduce retransmission of corrupted packets

Abstract

This paper presents a new scheme to reduce retransmissions of corrupted packets in TCP. The data segment of TCP frame is divided into small length unit we call as cells. A separate checksum is attached with each cell. In case of a corrupt packet, all the data cells are checked separately. Only corrupt cells are asked for retransmission instead of full packet. This helps us retransmitting the corrupt data of multiple packets in a single TCP packet which saves a lot of bandwidth. Extra bits attached with each cell increases redundancy but it reduces a lot of retransmissions. The proposed system has been explained with the help of pseudo code, general equations, comparative charts and simulation results. It has been further tested for different cases that include low noise environment, medium noise environment, high noise environment, and system with different BER and for full duplex system. Simulation results clearly indicate a significant improvement in throughput for all the scenarios especially for high noise environment. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.