TCP CERL: congestion control enhancement over wireless networks

In this paper, we propose and verify a modified version of TCP Reno that we call TCP Congestion Control Enhancement for Random Loss (CERL). We compare the performance of TCP CERL, using simulations conducted in ns-2, to the following other TCP variants: TCP Reno, TCP NewReno, TCP Vegas, TCP WestwoodNR and TCP Veno. TCP CERL is a sender-side modification of TCP Reno. It improves the performance of TCP in wireless networks subject to random losses. It utilizes the RTT measurements made throughout the duration of the connection to estimate the queue length of the link, and then estimates the congestion status. By distinguishing random losses from congestion losses based on a dynamically set threshold value, TCP CERL successfully attacks the well-known performance degradation issue of TCP over channels subject to random losses. Unlike other TCP variants, TCP CERL doesn’t reduce the congestion window and slow start threshold when random loss is detected. It is very simple to implement, yet provides a significant throughput gain over the other TCP variants mentioned above. In single connection tests, TCP CERL achieved an 175, 153, 85, 64 and 88% throughput gain over TCP Reno, TCP NewReno, TCP Vegas, TCP WestwoodNR and TCP Veno, respectively. In tests with multiple coexisting connections, TCP CERL achieved an 211, 226, 123, 70 and 199% throughput improvement over TCP Reno, TCP NewReno, TCP Vegas, TCP WestwoodNR and TCP Veno, respectively.     

Throughput analysis of TCP on channels with memory

The focus of this paper is to analyze the relative sensitivity of the bulk throughput performance of different versions of TCP, viz., OldTahoe, Tahoe, Reno, and New Reno, to channel errors that are correlated. We investigate the performance of a single wireless TCP connection in a local environment by modeling the correlated packet loss/error process (e.g., as induced by a multipath fading channel) as a first-order Markov chain. A major contribution of the paper is a unified analytical approach which allows the evaluation of the throughput performance of various versions of TCP. The main findings of this study are that 1) error correlations significantly affect the performance of TCP, and in particular may result in considerably better performance for Tahoe and NewReno; and 2) over slowly fading channels which are characterized by significant channel memory, Tahoe performs as well as NewReno. This leads us to conclude that a clever design of the lower layers that preserve error correlations, naturally present on wireless links because of the fading behavior, could be an attractive alternative to the development or the use of more complex versions of TCP     

Stochastic Modeling of TCP in Networks with Abrupt Delay Variations

An analytical model of TCP (Transport Control Protocol) over an end-to-end path with random abrupt round-trip time (RTT) changes is presented. Modeling the RTT as a stochastic process, we analytically quantify and compare between the degree of degradation of the steady-state average throughput and window size due to spurious retransmissions for the different versions of TCP (Reno/NewReno versus Tahoe). The modeling methodology in this paper is used for evaluating different design alternatives for TCP for highly dynamic networks.     

Energy Efficiency of TCP in a Local Wireless Environment

The focus of this paper is to analyze the energy consumption performance of various versions of TCP, namely, Tahoe, Reno and NewReno, for bulk data transfer in an environment where channel errors are correlated. We investigate the performance of a single wireless TCP connection by modeling the correlated packet loss/error process (e.g., as induced by a multipath fading channel) as a first-order Markov chain. Based on a unified analytical approach, we compute the throughput and energy performance of various versions of TCP. The main findings of this study are that (1) error correlations significantly affect the energy performance of TCP (consistent with analogous conclusions for throughput), and in particular they result in considerably better performance for Tahoe and NewReno than iid errors, and (2) the congestion control mechanism implemented by TCP does a good job at saving energy as well, by backing off and idling during error bursts. An interesting conclusion is that, unlike throughput, the energy efficiency metric may be very sensitive to the TCP version used and to the choice of the protocol parameters, so that large gains appear possible.     

TCP Performance in IEEE 802.11-Based Ad Hoc Networks with Multiple Wireless Lossy Links

We propose a packet-level model to investigate the impact of channel error on the transmission control protocol (TCP) performance over IEEE-802.11-based multihop wireless networks. A Markov renewal approach is used to analyze the behavior of TCP Reno and TCP Impatient NewReno. Compared to previous work, our main contributions are listed as follows: 1) modeling multiple lossy links, 2) investigating the interactions among TCP, Internet Protocol (IP), and media access control (MAC) protocol layers, specifically the impact of 802.11 MAC protocol and dynamic source routing (DSR) protocol on TCP throughput performance, 3) considering the spatial reuse property of the wireless channel, the model takes into account the different proportions between the interference range and transmission range, and 4) adopting more accurate and realistic analysis to the fast recovery process and showing the dependency of throughput and the risk of experiencing successive fast retransmits and timeouts on the packet error probability. The analytical results are validated against simulation results by using GloMoSim. The results show that the impact of the channel error is reduced significantly due to the packet retransmissions on a per-hop basis and a small bandwidth delay product of ad hoc networks. The TCP throughput always deteriorates less than ~ 10 percent, with a packet error rate ranging from 0 to 0.1. Our model also provides a theoretical basis for designing an optimum long retry limit for IEEE 802.11 in ad hoc networks.     

前向主动网络拥塞控制算法及其性能分析

本文提出了一种基于主动式网络(Active Networks)技术的拥塞控制算法FACC(Forward Active Networks Congestion Control).与传统的TCP(Transport Control Protocol)相比,FACC算法通过在网络结点直接提供拥塞检测和拥塞控制机制,大大缩短源端点的拥塞反应时间,从本质上提高了网络拥塞检测和控制的性能,从而提高了终端用户的平均吞吐量.文中还利用计算机仿真研究了FACC算法在各种网络条件下的性能,并与传统的Tahoe,Reno,NewReno及SACK TCP协议做了对比.结果表明无论网络中存不存在非受控数据流时,FACC控制算法均能明显地提高用户终端的平均吞吐量,并且由于采用FACC控制算法而增加的网络结点运算迟延也很小.     

On-board satellite "split TCP" proxy

Several satellite systems currently in operation or under development claim to support broadband Internet applications. In these scenarios, transmission control protocol (TCP) plays a critical role. Unfortunately, when used with satellite links, TCP suffers from a number of well-known performance problems, especially for higher data rates and high altitude satellites with longer delays. In response to these difficulties, the satellite and Internet research communities have developed a large gamut of solutions ranging from architectural modifications to changes in the TCP protocol. Among these, one approach requiring minimal modifications involves splitting the TCP connection in two or more segments with one segment connecting terrestrial nodes across the satellite network. In this paper, we consider an evolution of this idea: placing a TCP proxy on board the satellite that further subdivides the end-to-end connection into separate TCP connections between ground and space. We focus upon the efficient use of buffer resources on board the satellite, while at the same time enhancing TCP performance. We evaluate two TCP protocol versions, TCP NewReno and TCP Westwood. We consider various geosynchronous earth orbit satellite scenarios, with and without the split proxy, and with different channel error conditions (random errors, shadowing, etc.). Using simulation, we show that an on-board proxy provides a number of distinct advantages and can enhance throughput up to threefold for both TCP New Reno and TCP Westwood, in some scenarios, with relatively modest on-board buffering requirements. The main contributions of this paper are: the on-board split proxy concept, the buffer management strategy, the use of a realistic "urban shadowing" model in the evaluation, and the extensive comparison of the recently announced TCP Westwood with the traditional TCP New Reno.     

Analysis and improvement of TCP performance in opportunistic networks

Opportunistic networks have attracted attention due to their inherent characteristics, such as long latency, low data rate, and intermittent connectivity. Extensive research has been conducted on opportunistic networks, including the architecture, and routing. However, few in the literature report the performance of TCP in opportunistic networks, especially in the case of Epidemic Routing. In this paper, we first evaluate the performance of TCP in opportunistic networks with Epidemic Routing. Our results show that the Epidemic Routing in opportunistic networks degrades the performance of TCP because multicopy data packets cause duplicate ACKs, and in turn reduce the transmission rate of TCP. Then an enhanced algorithm for TCP, named A-TCP/Reno is proposed to solve the above problem. A-TCP/Reno avoids the duplicate ACK problem caused by Epidemic Routing. The simulation results show that A-TCP/Reno outperforms the TCP/Reno in opportunistic networks with Epidemic Routing protocol.     

Analytic models for the latency and steady-state throughput of TCP Tahoe, Reno, and SACK

Continuing the process of improvements made to TCP through the addition of new algorithms in Tahoe and Reno, TCP SACK aims to provide robustness to TCP in the presence of multiple losses from the same window. In this paper we present analytic models to estimate the latency and steady-state throughput of TCP Tahoe, Reno, and SACK and validate our models using both simulations and TCP traces collected from the Internet. In addition to being the first models for the latency of finite Tahoe and SACK flows, our model for the latency of TCP Reno gives a more accurate estimation of the transfer times than existing models. The improved accuracy is partly due to a more accurate modeling of the timeouts, evolution of cwnd during slow start and the delayed ACK timer. Our models also show that, under the losses introduced by the droptail queues which dominate most routers in the Internet, current implementations of SACK can fail to provide adequate protection against timeouts and a loss of roughly more than half the packets in a round will lead to timeouts. We also show that with independent losses SACK performs better than Tahoe and Reno and, as losses become correlated, Tahoe can outperform both Reno and SACK.     

Improving Throughput in Lossy Wired/Wireless Networks

Wireless communication is more prone to random loss than wired communication because of noise and mobility. Over years researchers have developed TCP variants that do not decrease the send window when random loss arises. Years ago it was introduced TCP CERL algorithm that proved to present a high performance compared to other protocols. Here, we test CERL assuming two-way transmission of relatively heavy load and compare with TCP BIC, TCP NewReno, TCP Westwood+, TCP NewJersey and TCP Illinois. Simulation Results show that TCP CERL gains a 145%, 137%, 120%, 97% and 125% throughput improvement over New Reno, Bic, Westwood+, New Jersey and Illinois, respectively.

     

Comparative performance analysis of versions of TCP in a localnetwork with a lossy link

We use a stochastic model to study the throughput performance of various transport control protocol (TCP) versions (Tahoe (including its older version that we call OldTahoe), Reno, and NewReno) in the presence of random losses on a wireless link in a local network. We model the cyclic evolution of TCP, each cycle starting at the epoch at which recovery starts from the losses in the previous cycle. TCP throughput is computed as the reward rate in a certain Markov renewal-reward process. Our model allows us to study the performance implications of various protocol features, such as fast retransmit and fast recovery. We show the impact of coarse timeouts. In the local network environment the key issue is to avoid a coarse timeout after a loss occurs. We show the effect of reducing the number of duplicate acknowledgements (ACKs) for triggering a fast retransmit. A large coarse timeout granularity seriously affects the performance of TCP, and the various protocol versions differ in their ability to avoid a coarse timeout when random loss occurs; we quantify these differences. We show that, for large packet-loss probabilities, TCP-Reno performs no better, or worse, than TCP-Tahoe. TCP-NewReno is a considerable improvement over TCP-Tahoe, and reducing the fast-retransmit threshold from three to one yields a large gain in throughput; this is similar to one of the modifications in the TCP-Vegas proposal. We explain some of these observations in terms of the variation of fast-recovery probabilities with packet-loss probability. The results of our analysis compare well with a simulation that uses actual TCP code     

Modelling of wireless TCP for short‐lived flows

The transmission control protocol (TCP) is one of the most important Internet protocols. It provides reliable transport services between two end‐hosts. Since TCP performance affects overall network performance, many studies have been done to model TCP performance in the steady state. However, recent researches have shown that most TCP flows are short‐lived. Therefore, it is more meaningful to model TCP performance in relation to the initial stage of short‐lived flows. In addition, the next‐generation Internet will be an unified all‐IP network that includes both wireless and wired networks integrated together. In short, modelling short‐lived TCP flows in wireless networks constitutes an important axis of research. In this paper, we propose simple wireless TCP models for short‐lived flows that extend the existing analytical model proposed in [IEEE Commun. Lett. 2002; 6 (2):85–88]. In terms of wireless TCP, we categorized wireless TCP schemes into three types: end‐to‐end scheme, split connection scheme, and local retransmission scheme, which is similar to the classification proposed in [IEEE/ACM Trans. Networking 1997; 756–769]. To validate the proposed models, we performed ns‐2 simulations. The average differences between the session completion time calculated using the proposed model and the simulation result for three schemes are less than 9, 16, and 7 ms, respectively. Consequently, the proposed model provides a satisfactory means of modelling the TCP performance of short‐lived wireless TCP flows. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Performance evaluation of TCP algorithms in multi‐hop wireless packet networks

Wireless packet ad hoc networks are characterized by multi‐hop wireless connectivity and limited bandwidth competed among neighboring nodes. In this paper, we investigate and evaluate the performance of several prevalent TCP algorithms in this kind of network over the wireless LAN standard IEEE 802.11 MAC layer. After extensively comparing the existing TCP versions (including Tahoe, Reno, New Reno, Sack and Vegas) in simulations, we show that, in most cases, the Vegas version works best. We reveal the reason why other TCP versions perform worse than Vegas and show a method to avoid this by tuning a TCP parameter— maximum window size. Furthermore, we investigate the performance of these TCP algorithms when they run with the delayed acknowledgment (DA) option defined in IETF RFC 1122, which allows the TCP receiver to transmit an ACK for every two incoming packets. We show that the TCP connection can gain 15 to 32 per cent good‐put improvement by using the DA option. For all the TCP versions investigated in this work, the simulation results show that with the maximum window size set at approximately 4, TCP connections perform best and then all these TCP variants differ little in performance. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploring the performance of TCP vegas in mobile ad hoc networks

Recent research efforts in mobile ad hoc networks have concentrated on examining the behaviour of TCP Reno over various ad hoc routing protocols and have suggested a number of extensions to improve its performance. TCP Vegas, which takes a proactive approach to congestion avoidance, has not so far been examined as a viable alternative to TCP Reno in wireless environments and no effort has been made to analyse its performance over routing protocols for MANETs. This paper evaluates using extensive simulation experiments the performance behaviour of TCP Vegas over a proactive (destination sequenced distance vector) and two reactive (dynamic source routing and ad hoc on demand distance vector) routing protocols and compares it against that of TCP Reno. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

一种考虑无线链路突发差错的TCP流量新解析模型

该文提出新的TCP流量理论分析模型,研究无线链路突发差错引起的分组丢失对TCP流量性能的影响。理论分析及数值仿真结果表明,该解析模型是合理的,既有较准确的分析结果,又降低了复杂度。同时,还表明在慢衰落信道中相关性越强,TCP流量越大,独立同分布信道的TCP流量是下界,即物理信道相关性对TCP流量是有利的。     

Start-up transition behaviour of TCP NewReno

NewReno has been proposed as the sender to recover multiple packet losses within a window by responding to a partial ACK. Since a great deal of time is required to recover all losses, the behaviour of the TCP sender during fast recovery greatly affects the overall performance. The dynamics of TCP NewReno variants during fast recovery are analysed     

TCP-BIAD for Enhancing TCP Performance in Broadband Wireless Access Networks

In this paper a new TCP variant, named TCP-Binary Increase, Adaptive Decrease is presented. The suggested congestion control algorithm is a joint approach of Westwood and an enhanced version of BIC, for improving TCP performance in broadband wireless access networks. BIAD has been evaluated with respect to other TCP variants such as Reno, Westwood, BIC, CUBIC, HSTCP and STCP with the use of network simulator 2. The results indicate that the proposed solution achieves high network utilization levels in a wide range of network settings, including wireless channel errors, link asymmetry and congestion. We also evaluated TCP-BIAD when multiple flows share a bottlenecked access link and we show that it demonstrates the fairness features required for network deployment.     

Detecting spurious timeouts in wireless cellular networks using DS‐Agent

Large and sudden variations in packet transmission delays are often unavoidable in wireless networks. Such large delays, refer to as delay spikes (DSs), are likely to exceed several times the typical network round‐trip‐time figures, which can cause TCP spurious timeouts. The spurious timeouts lead to unnecessary retransmissions and reduction of the TCP sender's transmission rate, and degradation of TCP throughput. In this paper we propose a new scheme called DS‐Agent. The spurious timeout is detected by a DS‐Agent and thus TCP sender can response to this spurious timeout accordingly. The simulation results show the better performance of DS‐Agent scheme compared with F‐RTO and TCP Reno in the presence of DSs which is caused by mobility. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Simulation Study on the Throughput Performance of TCP over Wireless Fading Channel

1　Introduction　TransportControlProtocol (TCP )asthewidespreadusedtransportprotocolintheInternetapplicationswasdesignedforwirelinenetworkswherethechannelerrorratesareverylowandcon gestionistheprimarycauseofpacketloss.Howev er ,whenTCPconnectionsextendoverwirelesslinks,manyfactorssuchasinterference,multipathfading ,usermobilityandatmosphericconditionsmaycauseerrorsresultinginframelossesoverthewirelesslinksthustheperformanceofTCPisseverelyaffected .　TheperformanceofTCPthroughputconsideri…