TCP Enhancements for Mobile Internet

Abstract

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), the most popular transport layer communication protocol for the Internet, was originally designed for wired networks, where bit error rate (BER) is low and congestion is the primary cause of packet loss. Since mobile access networks are prone to substantial noncongestive losses due to high BER, host motion and handoff mechanisms, they often disturb the traffic control mechanisms in TCP. So the research literature abounds in various TCP enhancements to make it survive in the mobile Internet environment, where mobile devices face temporary and unannounced loss of network connectivity when they move. Mobility of devices causes varying, increased delays and packet losses. TCP incorrectly interprets these delays and losses as sign of network congestion and invokes unnecessary control mechanisms, causing degradation in the end-to-end goodput rate. This chapter provides an in-depth survey of various TCP enhancements which aim to redress the above issues and hence are specifically targeted for the mobile Internet applications.