How Sufficient is TCP When Deployed in 5G mmWave Networks over the Urban Deployment?

Abstract

By deploying the millimeter-wave wide spectrum in 5G networks, the new generation is capable of providing high data rates with low latencies. However, these frequencies have intermittent characteristics as their downside, which acts as a hurdle on the way of attaining high performances. This disadvantage can lower signals' penetration power in reaching far distances or passing materials such as vehicles, walls, and even human bodies. As a result, having a reliable end-to-end connection throughout 5G millimeter-wave networks can be challenging because this burden is on the transport layer mostly exploited protocol, TCP, which is unable to perform sufficiently due to the fluctuation of the high-frequency channels. This paper aims to analyze TCP's behavior in one of the 3GPP's well-known scenarios called urban deployment. The detailed investigation of TCP over 5G millimeter-wave when used in a city and the impact of different parameters such as remote servers, RLC buffer size, different congestion control algorithms, and maximum segment size are discussed thoroughly throughout the paper. The results revealed that TCP could benefit from the edge server deployment due to the shorter control loop, and increasing maximum segment size can also enhance this superiority. Moreover, individual TCP variants react to various RLC buffer sizes differently. However, in general, increased throughput can be attained by deploying larger buffers at the cost of latency.