HxH: a hop-by-hop transport protocol for multi-hop wireless networks

TCP can perform poorly in multi-hop wireless networks due to problems that arise with contention and mobility. Endto-end protocols are at an inherent disadvantage in trying to solve these problems because their feedback loop operates over multiple wireless hops, which makes it difficult to diagnose problems that occur several hops away and hinders their ability to adapt to changing network conditions. In this paper, we design HxH, a hop-by-hop transport protocol that uses credit-based congestion control and reverse ACKs to solve many of the problems observed with TCP. We use a simulation study to demonstrate that our hop-by-hop approach allows HxH to respond quickly to changing network conditions and to exploit the unique characteristics of wireless networks to reduce overhead. We show that HxH greatly increases throughput and improves fairness, as compared to several end-to-end protocols, in both mesh and mobile ad hoc networks. Categories and Subject Descriptors C.2 [Computer-Commun...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: WICON
• Authors: Daniel Scofield, Lei Wang, Daniel Zappala
• Keywords: Computer Networks, Multi-hop Wireless Networks, Network Conditions, WICON 2008, Wireless Networks