Research Article
Network Coding for TCP Throughput Enhancement over a Multi-Hop Wireless Network
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.1109/COMSWA.2008.4554414, author={P. Samuel David and Anurag Kumar}, title={Network Coding for TCP Throughput Enhancement over a Multi-Hop Wireless Network}, proceedings={3rd International ICST Conference on COMmunication System SoftWAre and MiddlewaRE}, publisher={IEEE}, proceedings_a={COMSWARE}, year={2008}, month={6}, keywords={Multi-hop wireless networks network coding TCP performance over wireless networks}, doi={10.1109/COMSWA.2008.4554414} }- P. Samuel David
Anurag Kumar
Year: 2008
Network Coding for TCP Throughput Enhancement over a Multi-Hop Wireless Network
COMSWARE
IEEE
DOI: 10.1109/COMSWA.2008.4554414
Abstract
The poor performance of TCP over multi-hop wireless networks is well known. In this paper we explore to what extent network coding can help to improve the throughput performance of TCP controlled bulk transfers over a chain topology multi-hop wireless network. The nodes use a CSMA/CA mechanism, such as IEEE 802.11’s DCF, to perform distributed packet scheduling. The reverse flowing TCP ACKs are sought to be X-ORed with forward flowing TCP data packets. We find that, without any modification to theMAC protocol, the gain from network coding is negligible. The inherent coordination problem of carrier sensing based random access in multi-hop wireless networks dominates the performance. We provide a theoretical analysis that yields a throughput bound with network coding. We then propose a distributed modification of the IEEE 802.11 DCF, based on tuning the back-off mechanism using a feedback approach. Simulation studies show that the proposed mechanism when combined with network coding, improves the performance of a TCP session by more than 100%.
