Design and analysis of TCP AIMD in wireless networks

Abstract

The class of additive-increase/multiplicative-decrease (AIMD) algorithms constitutes a key mechanism for congestion control in modern communication networks, like the current Internet. The algorithmic behaviour may, however, be distorted when wireless links are present. Specifically, spurious window reductions may be triggered due to packet reordering and non-congestive loss. In this paper, we develop a framework for AIMD in TCP to analyze the aforementioned problem. The framework enables a systematic analysis of the existing AIMD-based TCP variants and assists in the design of new TCP variants. It classifies the existing AIMD-based TCP variants into two main streams, known as compensators and differentiators, and develops a generic expression that covers the rate adaptation processes of both approaches. It further identifies a new approach in enhancing the performance of TCP, known as the compensation scheme. A tax-rebate approach is proposed as an approximation of the compensation scheme, and used to enhance the AIMD-based TCP variants to offer unified solutions for effective congestion control, sequencing control, and error control. In traditional wired networks, the new family of TCP variants with the proposed enhancements automatically preserves the same inter-flow fairness and TCP friendliness. We have conducted a series of simulations to examine their performance under various network scenarios. In most scenarios, significant performance gains are attained. © 2013 IEEE.