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.     

Impact of Doppler spread and adaptive modulation on TCP throughput in Rayleigh fading channels

A number of wireless systems have recently adopted adaptive modulation (AM) schemes to improve its efficiency. In this letter, our aim is to study the impact Doppler spread and adaptive modulation has on transmission control protocol (TCP) throughput in Rayleigh fading channels. We consider a finite state Markov channel (FSMC) model, which is a useful model for analyzing radio channel with nonindependent fading. Furthermore, we use a Markov model for TCP evolution and evaluate the TCP performance by computer simulations. In our simulations we have compared the TCP Reno scheme with TCP Tahoe scheme. The results indicate that a large Doppler spread leads to lower TCP throughput due to more frequent transitions of channel states and modulation schemes which make it difficult for the TCP congestion control mechanism to accommodate the dynamic link characteristics.     

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.     

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     

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.     

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.     

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.     

The effect of correlated errors on the performance of TCP

Wireless channels are known to introduce correlated bursts of errors at the physical layer. Although these errors affect the performance at all layers of a protocol stack, their precise impact, especially at the higher layers, is not completely understood. We study the effect of error correlations on the throughput of a single transport control protocol (TCP) Tahoe connection. We find that TCP Tahoe performs better in the presence of clustered errors. This suggests that techniques that reduce channel memory may be undesirable     

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…     

Comparative study of various TCP versions over a wireless link with correlated losses

We investigate the behavior of the various transmission control protocol (TCP) algorithms over wireless links with correlated packet losses. For such a scenario, we show that the performance of NewReno is worse than the performance of Tahoe in many situations and even OldTahoe in a few situations because of the inefficient fast recovery method of NewReno. We also show that random loss leads to significant throughput deterioration when either the product of the square of the bandwidth-delay ratio and the loss probability when in the good state exceeds one, or the product of the bandwidth-delay ratio and the packet success probability when in the bad state is less than two. The performance of Sack is always seen to be the best and the most robust, thereby arguing for the implementation of TCP-Sack over the wireless channel. We also show that, under certain conditions, the performance depends not only on the bandwidth-delay product but also on the nature of timeout, coarse or fine. We have also investigated the effects of reducing the fast retransmit threshold.     

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.     

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.     

Analytical modeling of Transmission Control Protocol NewReno using Generalized Stochastic Petri Nets

This paper presents a novel analytical model of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) using a generalized stochastic Petri net (GSPN). Extensive simulation work has been done for the performance evaluation of TCP NewReno protocol. In view of the limitations of the simulation technique, we present an analytical approach using GSPN. A GSPN is a useful mathematical tool that solves continuous time Markov chains for complex systems and evaluates the stationary behavior. In this paper, we analyze the slow‐but‐steady variant of TCP NewReno. The model captures the behavioral aspects of the slow start and the congestion avoidance phase together with the fast retransmit and recovery capabilities of TCP NewReno. Performance metrics such as throughput, goodput, and task completion time of the system are obtained. The effect of variation in the model parameters on the performance is studied. The results are validated using the network simulator, and their accuracy is verified by evaluating the confidence interval. The performance of the proposed model is compared with that of TCP Reno. The performance of the proposed model is also compared with one of the previous models. The numerical illustrations and comparison of the proposed technique with simulation validates the accuracy, efficiency, and competence of the GSPN technique. While GSPN modeling for TCP is investigated in depth for the TCP NewReno and TCP Reno variant in this paper, other protocols could be also analyzed similarly. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fairness and stability of congestion control mechanisms of TCP

In this paper, we focus on fairness and stability of the congestion control mechanisms adopted in several versions of TCP by investigating their time–transient behaviors through an analytic approach. In addition to TCP Tahoe and TCP Reno, we also consider TCP Vegas which has been recently proposed for higher throughput, and enhanced TCP Vegas, which is proposed in this paper for fairness enhancements. We consider the homogeneous case, where two connections have the equivalent propagation delays, and the heterogeneous case, where each connection has different propagation delay. We show that TCP Tahoe and TCP Reno can achieve fairness among connections in the homogeneous case, but cannot in the heterogeneous case. We also show that TCP Vegas can provide almost fair service among connection, but there is some unfairness caused by the essential nature of TCP Vegas. Finally, we explain the effectiveness of our enhanced TCP Vegas in terms of fairness and throughput. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

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.     

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。     

变误码率的无线信道中TCP性能研究

描述了TCPReno、TCPVegas和TCPSACK的实现原理,并在NS2中仿真出一个误码率时变的无线信道,把TCP三个版本置于NS仿真环境中进行了仿真,对仿真结果进行了分析,指出了无线信道中TCP的研究方向。     

Improving TCP performance over networks with wireless components using ‘probing devices’

TCP error control mechanism lacks the ability to detect with precision the nature of potential errors during communication. It is only capable of detecting the results of the errors, namely that segments are dropped. As a result, the protocol lacks the ability to implement an appropriate error recovery strategy cognizant of current network conditions and responsive to the distinctive error characteristics of the communication channel. TCP sender always calls for the sending window to shrink. We show that probing mechanisms could enhance the error detection capabilities of the protocol. TCP could then flexibly adjust its window in a manner that permits the available bandwidth to be exploited without violating the requirements of stability, efficiency and fairness that need to be guaranteed during congestion. Our experiments have three distinct goals: First, to demonstrate the potential contribution of probing mechanisms. A simple probing mechanism and an immediate recovery strategy are grafted into TCP‐Tahoe and TCP‐Reno. We show that, this way, standard TCP can improve its performance without requiring any further change. Second, to study the performance of adaptive strategies. An adaptive TCP with probing is used, that is responsive to the detected error conditions by alternating slow start, fast recovery and immediate recovery. An adaptive error recovery strategy can yield better performance. Third, to study the design limitations of the probing device itself. The aggressive or conservative nature of the probing mechanisms themselves can determine the aggressive or conservative behaviour of the protocol and exploit accordingly the energy/throughput trade‐off. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.

     

TCP Westwood: End-to-End Congestion Control for Wired/Wireless Networks

TCP Westwood (TCPW) is a sender-side modification of the TCP congestion window algorithm that improves upon the performance of TCP Reno in wired as well as wireless networks. The improvement is most significant in wireless networks with lossy links. In fact, TCPW performance is not very sensitive to random errors, while TCP Reno is equally sensitive to random loss and congestion loss and cannot discriminate between them. Hence, the tendency of TCP Reno to overreact to errors. An important distinguishing feature of TCP Westwood with respect to previous wireless TCP extensions is that it does not require inspection and/or interception of TCP packets at intermediate (proxy) nodes. Rather, TCPW fully complies with the end-to-end TCP design principle. The key innovative idea is to continuously measure at the TCP sender side the bandwidth used by the connection via monitoring the rate of returning ACKs. The estimate is then used to compute congestion window and slow start threshold after a congestion episode, that is, after three duplicate acknowledgments or after a timeout. The rationale of this strategy is simple: in contrast with TCP Reno which blindly halves the congestion window after three duplicate ACKs, TCP Westwood attempts to select a slow start threshold and a congestion window which are consistent with the effective bandwidth used at the time congestion is experienced. We call this mechanism faster recovery. The proposed mechanism is particularly effective over wireless links where sporadic losses due to radio channel problems are often misinterpreted as a symptom of congestion by current TCP schemes and thus lead to an unnecessary window reduction. Experimental studies reveal improvements in throughput performance, as well as in fairness. In addition, friendliness with TCP Reno was observed in a set of experiments showing that TCP Reno connections are not starved by TCPW connections. Most importantly, TCPW is extremely effective in mixed wired and wireless networks where throughput improvements of up to 550% are observed. Finally, TCPW performs almost as well as localized link layer approaches such as the popular Snoop scheme, without incurring the overhead of a specialized link layer protocol.