Cross-layer TCP performance analysis in IEEE 802.11 vehicular environments

In this paper we provide a performance analysis of TCP in IEEE 802.11 vehicular environments for different well-known TCP versions, such as Tahoe, Reno, New Reno, Vegas, and Sack. The parameters of interest from the TCP side are the number of Duplicate Acknowledgements - DupAck, and the number of Delayed Acknowledgements - DelAck, while on the wireless network side the analyzed parameter is the interface queue - IFQ. We have made the analysis for the worst-case distance scenario for single-hop and worst-case multihop vehicular environments. The results show that the number of wireless hops in vehicular environments significantly reduces the TCP throughput. The best average performances considering all scenarios were obtained for TCP Vegas. However, the results show that the interface queue at wireless nodes should be at least five packets or more. On the other side, due to shorter distances in the vehicular wireless network, results show possible flexibility of using different values for the DupAck without degradation of the TCP throughput. On the other side, the introduction of the DelAck parameter provides enhancement in the average TCP throughput for all TCP versions.