Revealing TCP incompatibility problem in 802.11-based wireless multi-hop networks

Author

Xu, Shugong ; Saadawi, Tarek

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., City Univ. of New York, NY, USA

Volume

5

fYear

2001

fDate

2001

Firstpage

2847

Abstract

In this paper, we report and reveal a so-called "incompatibility" problem among TCP connections in an IEEE 802.11-based wireless multi-hop network. This problem is not the same as those unfairness problems reported before. In each of the cases we identified, one TCP connection is completely shut down at a time, and, after a while, it will kill the other TCP connection-just like a turn-over. There is no unfairness in the long-term average throughput. By illustrating the TCP layer and MAC layer traces, we show that this kind of incompatibility problem is rooted in the IEEE 802.11 MAC layer. The hidden node problem and the exposed node problem, along with the exponential back-off scheme in the MAC layer, are the major causes for that problem

Keywords

IEEE standards; access protocols; transport protocols; wireless LAN; IEEE 802.11; MAC layer; TCP connections; exponential back-off scheme; exposed node problem; hidden node problem; incompatibility; wireless multi-hop network; Access protocols; Cities and towns; Educational institutions; Government; Intelligent networks; Media Access Protocol; Routing protocols; Spread spectrum communication; Throughput; Wireless networks;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Global Telecommunications Conference, 2001. GLOBECOM '01. IEEE

Conference_Location

San Antonio, TX

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7206-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/GLOCOM.2001.965949

Filename

965949