Selective-TCP for wired/wireless networks

One of the main reasons for TCP's degraded performance in wireless networks is TCP's interpretation that packet loss is caused by congestion. However, in wireless networks packet loss occurs mostly due to high bit error rate, packet corruption, or link failure. TCP performance in wired/wireless networks may be substantially improved if the cause of packet loss could be detected and appropriate rectifying measures taken dynamically. This report proposes a new end-to-end TCP protocol named Selective-TCP that distinguishes between congestion and wireless link errors (high bit error rate, packet corruption) and invokes appropriate correction mechanisms. This makes the proposed protocol better suited in a wide range of applications in mixed wired and wireless links. Selective-TCP gives up to 45% increase in goodput over NewReno in the simulation scenarios that we analyzed.