CAPOT: A Cross-Layer MAC Protocol for One-Way TCP Flow in Wireless Mesh Networks

It is a common case that a one-way TCP data flow is set up between a client and a server when the client accesses the Internet through wireless mesh networks (WMNs). Since both IEEE 802.11 and TCP have acknowledgement (ACK) mechanisms for transmission reliability, the functional duplication results in overhead. In this paper, a cross-layer MAC protocol for one-way TCP data flow performance enhancement in WMNs is proposed, which is referred to as CAPOT. CAPOT combines TCPlayer ACK information with MAC-layer ACK frames to reduce redundancy and improve data flow throughput. To avoid possible deadlock introduced by CAPOT, a dynamic switching mechanism is also designed. Simulation results reveal the effectiveness of CAPOT.