An ELFN-based TCP-freeze scheme using the route information of sender node for ad hoc networks

Studies on the performance and problems of TCP over multi-hop ad-hoc networks has recently attracted more interest of the research community. TCP faces challenges of frequent disconnections due to the dynamic topology and multi-hop transmission of such networks. ELFN (explicit link failure notification) has been proposed to alleviate the adverse effects of link failure on TCP performance. However, it necessitates modification of the existing routing protocols at the intermediate nodes, and cannot be used with network security measures such as LPSec where the whole IP payload is encrypted. We propose an ELFN-based TCP-Freeze scheme based on the route information of sender node for mobile ad-hoc networks. The proposed scheme is an end-to-end scheme that requires minor modifications only at the sender side, and works even when network security measures such as IPSec are in place. The most attractive feature of the proposed scheme is that it works with not only reactive routing protocols but also proactive routing protocols.