Impact of Random Loss on TCP Performance in Mobile Ad hoc Networks (IEEE 802.11), A Simulation-Based Analysis

Abstract

Initially TCP was designed with the notion in mind that wired networks are generally reliable and any segment loss in a transmission is due to congestion in the network rather than an unreliable medium (The assumptions is that the packet loss caused by damage is much less than 1 percent) . This notion doesnt hold in wireless parts of the network. Wireless links are highly unreliable and they lose segments all the time due to a number of factors. Very few papers are available which uses TCP for MANET. In this paper, an attempt have been made to justify the use of TCP variants (Tahoe and Reno) for loss of packet due to random noise introduces in the MANET. For the present analysis the simulation has been carried out for TCP variants (Tahoe and Reno) by introduces 0, 10, 20 and 30 percent noise. The comparison of TCP variants is made by running simulation for 0, 10, 20 and 30 percent of data packet loss due to noise in the transmission link and the effect of throughput and congestion window has been examined. During the simulation we have observed that throughput has been decreased when a drop of multiple segments happens, further we have observed in the case of TCP variant (Reno) throughput is better at 1 percent (Figure 5) which implies a network with short burst of error and low BER, causing only one segment to be lost. When multiple segments are lost due to error prone nature of link, Tahoe perform better than Reno (Figure 13), that gives a significant saving of time (64.28 percent) in comparison with Reno (Table 4). Several simulations have been run with ns 2 simulator in order to acquire a better understanding of these TCP variants and the way they perform their function. We conclude with a discussion of whether these TCP versions can be used in Mobile Ad hoc Network.