Wireless Transport Layer Congestion Control Evaluation

Year

2010

Season

Fall

Paper Type

Master's Thesis

College

College of Computing, Engineering & Construction

Degree Name

Master of Science in Computer and Information Sciences (MS)

Department

Foundations and Secondary Education

First Advisor

Dr. Sanjay P. Ahuja

Second Advisor

Dr. Roger E. Eggen

Third Advisor

Dr. Zornitza G. Prodanoff

Fourth Advisor

Dr. Judith L. Solano

Fifth Advisor

Dr. Peter A. Braza

Abstract

Using an active network evaluation technique, the congestion control algorithms of the TCP, DCCP, and SCTP transport layer protocols were evaluated to determine their characteristics in the presence of wireless congestion versus network congestion. The performance metrics in question included throughput, fairness, and smoothness. Through rigorous experimentation and controlled application of the two congestion types, the protocols were evaluated for effectiveness in the wireless and wired environments in terms of fairness and smoothness. Though TCP’s fairness suffers when subjected to wireless congestion, the results showed the alternative protocols suffered in terms of fairness whether congestion is present or not, wireless or otherwise. The smoothness of the alternative protocol, DCCP configured to use the congestion control profile CCID2, was found to be unaffected by the congestion source. The smoothness of SCTP was affected by the amount of time it was allowed to establish itself, prior to the introduction of congestion. SCTP performed even smoother within a wirelessly congested environment than it did in a traditional Ethernet congested environment. Each of these conclusions will be useful for future development of these protocols as well as their implementations in wireless or wired networks. The research performed in this thesis can also provide a framework for wireless transport layer congestion control evaluation.

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