A Model for Congestion Control of Transmission Control Protocol in Mobile Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is a fundamental protocol in the TCP/IP Protocol Suite.TCP was well designed and optimized to work over wired networks where most packet loss occurs due to network congestion. In theory, TCP should not care whether it is running over wired networks, WLANs, or Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs). In practice, it does matter because most TCP deployments have been carefully designed based on the assumption that congestion is the main factor of network instability. However, MANETs have other dominating factors that cause network instability. Forgetting the impact of these factors violates some design principles of TCP congestion control and open questions for future research to address. This study aims to introduce a model that shows the impact of MANET factors on TCP congestion control. To achieve this aim, Design Research Methodology (DRM) proposed by BLESSING was used as a guide to present this model. The proposed model describes the existing situation of TCP congestion control. Furthermore, it points to the factors that are most suitable to be addressed by researchers in order to improve TCP performance. This research proposes a novel model to present the impact of MANET factors on TCP congestion control. The model is expected to serve as a benchmark for any intended improvement and enhancement of TCP congestion control over MANET.