Cross-Layer Design Improves TCP Performance in Multihop Ad Hoc Networks

Yongkang XIAO
Xiuming SHAN
Yong REN

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications   Vol.E88-B    No.8    pp.3375-3382
Publication Date: 2005/08/01
Online ISSN: 
DOI: 10.1093/ietcom/e88-b.8.3375
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: PAPER
Category: Wireless Communication Technologies
Keyword: 
multihop ad hoc networks,  IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol,  TCP,  congestion control mechanism,  cross-layer design,  

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Summary: 
TCP performance in the IEEE 802.11-based multihop ad hoc networks is extremely poor, because the congestion control mechanism of TCP cannot effectively deal with the problem of packet drops caused by mobility and shared channel contention among wireless nodes. In this paper, we present a cross-layer method, which adaptively adjusts the TCP maximum window size according to the number of RTS (Request To Send) retry counts of the MAC layer at the TCP sender, to control the number of TCP packets in the network and thus decrease the channel contention. Our simulation results show that this method can remarkably improve TCP throughput and its stability.