Bit-error identification for TCP performance improvement

Transmission control protocol (TCP) is a reliable transport protocol assuming that most packet losses are caused by congestion. But in network with wireless links, significant packet losses are due to bit-errors, which cause end-to-end performance degradation. This paper also proposes a bit-error identification scheme that can differentiate a loss due to congestion in a wired network from a loss due to noise in a wireless network. Simulation results show that the scheme can improve TCP performance significantly. In addition, the scheme is "TCP-unaware" that can be effective when the encryption is used in communication.