Features of Parallel TCP with Emphasis on Congestion Avoidance in Heterogeneous Networks

Abstract

In this chapter we describe and model Parallel TCP, an extension of the TCP protocol, designed for heterogeneous networks with wired and wireless (possibly multihop) links. Parallel TCP splits a standard TCP connection into a number of parallel virtual connections. An analytical and a simulation model are presented and used to evaluate the performance of Parallel TCP. It is shown that based on these models Parallel TCP could improve TCP performance in heterogeneous networks by either dynamically adjusting the number of virtual connections or adjusting the Congestion Avoidance (CA) algorithm in a static number of connections. The latter is a preferable solution as dynamically changing the number of connections creates a large connection management problem.KeywordsCongestion avoidanceheterogeneous networksprotocol modelingparallel connectionsTCPwireless networks