A Unified TCP Enhancement for Wireless Mesh Networks

The recent emergence of wireless mesh networks as a quick and inexpensive way to access the Internet has gained attention in the networking field. While using multiple radios improves network throughput, it undermines TCP´s underlying assumptions. When deployed in wireless mesh networks, TCP faces four challenges: transmission errors, packet reordering due to multipath routing, multihop connections and congestion. If not handled properly, they can incorrectly trigger TCP congestion control mechanisms and cause poor performance. In this paper, we propose a new TCP enhancement, named Congestion Coherence, to address these challenges. Simulation results confirm that this enhancement significantly improves TCP performance in wireless mesh networks.