Study of the TCP Dynamics over Wireless Networks with Micromobility Support Using the ns Simulator

Several IP micro-mobility protocols have been proposed to enhance the performance of Mobile IP in an environment with frequent handoffs. In this paper we make a detailed study of how some of these protocols namely Cellular IP, HAWAII and Hierarchical Mobile IP affect the behavior of TCP and their interaction with the MAC layer. The aim of the paper is to investigate the impact of handoffs on TCP by means of simulation traces that show the evolution of segments and acknowledgments during handoffs.