Channel Responsive wireless TCP

Hideki Endo, Kevin Schubert, Nicholas Bambos

Abstract: We consider the problem of TCP congestion control over wireless links. Packet losses due to wireless channel variation needlessly throttle TCP's congestion window leading to sub-capacity throughput for a given link. We consider Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) as a marker of channel state and propose pausing packet transmission when the channel state is poor. Using this additional metric and control leads to a congestion control algorithm better tuned for the wireless environment. The resulting Channel Responsive TCP (CR-TCP) algorithm is simple to implement and interoperable with traditional variants. We develop an optimal control framework for interference dominated environments and demonstrate the CR-TCP algorithm over various wireless link conditions showing that it outperforms traditional TCP congestion control implementations.