RELD, RTT ECN Loss Differentiation to optimize the performance of transport protocols on wireless networks

One major yet unsolved problem in wired-cum-wireless networks is the classification of losses, which might result from wireless temporary interferences or from network congestion. The transport protocol response to losses should be different for these two cases. If the transmission uses existing protocols like TCP, the losses are always classified as congestion losses by sender, causing reduced throughput. In wired networks, ECN (Explicit Congestion Notification) can be used to control the congestion through active queue management such as RED (Random Early Detection). It can also be used to solve the transport protocol misreaction over wireless networks. This paper proposes a loss differentiation method (RELD), based on ECN signaling and RTT (Round Trip Time), and applied to TCPlike. TCPlike is one of the three current congestion controls present in the new transport protocol DCCP (Datagram Congestion Control Protocol). Our simulations, using a more realistic simulated loss error model for wireless networks, show that RELD optimizes congestion control and therefore increases the performance of transport protocols over wireless networks, leading to an average performance gain ranging from 10% to 15%.