A cross-layer scheme to improve TCP performance in wireless multi-hop networks

Abstract

TCP optimization problem in wireless multi-hop networks can be solved effectively by utilizing feedback from various layers. Since hop-count and round trip time are the critical factors that seriously affect TCP performance on end-to-end connection, we derive analytically the relation between these factors and TCP mechanism. The analytical result is facilitated to propose a cross-layer TCP congestion control scheme. The behavior of resulting scheme is analytically tractable. We show that our simple strategy significantly improves TCP performance in different topologies and flow patterns, in terms of throughput and delay.