Transmission Control Protocol Protocol Research Articles

A Secure TCP Connection Migration Protocol to Enable the Survivability of Client-Server Applications Under Malicious Attack

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection migration has been previously proposed to allow for the mobility of servers. In this paper we revisit TCP connection migration for purposes of server survivability against malicious denial-of-service attacks. We present a protocol that allows an on-going TCP connection to be migrated from one server to another. This migration is performed in a secure manner such that the protocol itself cannot be exploited for malicious attacks. Further the migration can be performed even in the case where the original server is compromised. The protocol has been designed so as to allow interoperability with legacy TCP protocols. It is intended to be the transport layer foundations over which survivable applications can be built.

On-Board Satellite “Split TCP” Proxy

Several satellite systems currently in operation or under development claim to support broadband Internet applications. In these scenarios, transmission control protocol (TCP) plays a critical role. Unfortunately, when used with satellite links, TCP suffers from a number of well-known performance problems, especially for higher data rates and high altitude satellites with longer delays. In response to these difficulties, the satellite and Internet research communities have developed a large gamut of solutions ranging from architectural modifications to changes in the TCP protocol. Among these, one approach requiring minimal modifications involves splitting the TCP connection in two or more segments with one segment connecting terrestrial nodes across the satellite network. In this paper, we consider an evolution of this idea: placing a TCP proxy on board the satellite that further subdivides the end-to-end connection into separate TCP connections between ground and space. We focus upon the efficient use of buffer resources on board the satellite, while at the same time enhancing TCP performance. We evaluate two TCP protocol versions, TCP NewReno and TCP Westwood. We consider various geosynchronous earth orbit satellite scenarios, with and without the split proxy, and with different channel error conditions (random errors, shadowing, etc.). Using simulation, we show that an on-board proxy provides a number of distinct advantages and can enhance throughput up to threefold for both TCP New Reno and TCP Westwood, in some scenarios, with relatively modest on-board buffering requirements. The main contributions of this paper are: the on-board split proxy concept, the buffer management strategy, the use of a realistic "urban shadowing" model in the evaluation, and the extensive comparison of the recently announced TCP Westwood with the traditional TCP New Reno.

Modeling TCP-vegas under on/off traffic

The success of the current Internet relies to a large extent on a cooperation between the users and the network. The network signals its current state to the users by marking or dropping packets. The users then strive to maximize the sending rate without causing network congestion. To achieve this, the users implement a flow-control algorithm that controls the rate at which data packets are sent into the Internet. More specifically, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is used by the users to adjust the sending rate in response to changing network conditions. TCP uses the observation of packet loss events and estimates of the round trip time (RTT) to adjust its sending rate.In this thesis we investigate and propose stochastic models for TCP. The models are used to estimate network performance like throughput, link utilization, and packet loss rate. The first part of the thesis introduces the TCP protocol and contains an extensive TCP modeling survey that summarizes the most important TCP modeling work. Reviewed models are categorized as renewal theory models, fixed-point methods, fluid models, processor sharing models or control theoretic models. The merits of respective category is discussed and guidelines for which framework to use for future TCP modeling is given.The second part of the thesis contains six papers on TCP modeling. Within the renewal theory framework we propose single source TCP-Tahoe and TCP-NewReno models. We investigate the performance of these protocols in both a DropTail and a RED queuing environment. The aspects of TCP performance that are inherently depending on the actual implementation of the flow-control algorithm are singled out from what depends on the queuing environment.Using the fixed-point framework, we propose models that estimate packet loss rate and link utilization for a network with multiple TCP-Vegas, TCP-SACK and TCP-Reno on/off sources. The TCP-Vegas model is novel and is the first model capable of estimating the network's operating point for TCP-Vegas sources sending on/off traffic. All TCP and network models in the contributed research papers are validated via simulations with the network simulator ns-2.This thesis serves both as an introduction to TCP and as an extensive orientation about state of the art stochastic TCP models.

Performance evaluation of wireless TCP with rerouting in mobile networks

We study the performance of two different classes of wireless Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) schemes—the split connection TCP and the snoop protocol TCP under four rerouting schemes—full rerouting, partial rerouting, cell forwarding and virtual tree rerouting. The wireless TCP schemes are compared based on the source throughput, average round trip delay and cumulative source disruption time. We analyze the performance of these wireless TCP schemes and their interaction with rerouting.

Revealing the problems with 802.11 medium access control protocol in multi-hop wireless ad hoc networks

The IEEE 802.11 medium access control (MAC) protocol is a standard for wireless LANs, it is also widely used in almost all test beds and simulations for the research in wireless mobile multi-hop ad hoc networks. However, this protocol was not designed for multi-hop networks. Although it can support some ad hoc network architecture, it is not intended to support the wireless mobile ad hoc network, in which multi-hop connectivity is one of the most prominent features. In this paper, we focus on the following question: can IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol function well in multi-hop networks? By presenting several serious problems encountered in transmission control protocol (TCP) connections in an IEEE 802.11 based multi-hop network, we show that the current TCP protocol does not work well above the current 802.11 MAC layer. The relevant problems include the TCP instability problem found in this kind of network, the severe unfairness problem, and the incompatibility problem. We illustrate that all these problems are rooted in the MAC layer. Furthermore, by revealing the in-depth cause of these problems, we conclude that the current version of this wireless LAN protocol does not function well in multi-hop ad hoc networks. We thus doubt whether the current WaveLAN based system is workable as a mobile multi-hop ad hoc test bed. All the results shown in this paper are based on NS2 simulations, and are compatible with the results from the OPNET simulations.

ATCP: TCP for mobile ad hoc networks

Transport connections set up in wireless ad hoc networks are plagued by problems such as high bit error rates, frequent route changes, and partitions. If we run the transmission control protocol (TCP) over such connections, the throughput of the connection is observed to be extremely poor because TCP treats lost or delayed acknowledgments as congestion. We present an approach where we implement a thin layer between Internet protocol and standard TCP that corrects these problems and maintains high end-to-end TCP throughput. We have implemented our protocol in FreeBSD, and we present results from extensive experimentation done in an ad hoc network. We show that our solution improves the TCP's throughput by a factor of 2-3.

TCP over satellite...the final frontier

Communication satellites are now being used to transport TCP/IP traffic between distant locations, and to offer Internet access. Satellites have thus become the celestial link of the Internet, an "instant" infrastructure in the sky. The rapid growth of satellite communications is evolving the TCP/IP protocol suite in positive ways. In particular, enhancements to the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) to address the challenges of satellite transmission will benefit all high-bandwidth TCP communications. TCP is the predominant unicast transport protocol used by Internet applications such as Telnet, FTP, and HTTP. The ability of TCP to maximize the link utilization of a satellite channel is being challenged by the inherent delays associated with space communications and some of TCP's own behaviors. The author discusses the basics of using TCP for satellite transmission and describes the changes you can expect to see in the TCP protocol itself as a result of the increase in use of satellites for TCP/IP traffic.