Performance Evaluation of TCP over Mobile Ad-hoc Networks

With the proliferation of mobile computing devices, the demand for continuous network connectivity regardless of physical location has spurred interest in the use of mobile ad hoc networks. Since Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is the standard network protocol for communication in the internet, any wireless network with Internet service need to be compatible with TCP. TCP is tuned to perform well in traditional wired networks, where packet losses occur mostly because of congestion. However, TCP connections in Ad-hoc mobile networks are plagued by problems such as high bit error rates, frequent route changes, multi-path routing and temporary network partitions. The throughput of TCP over such connection is not satisfactory, because TCP misinterprets the packet loss or delay as congestion and invokes congestion control and avoidance algorithm. In this research, the performance of TCP in Ad-hoc mobile network with high Bit Error rate (BER) and mobility is studied and investigated. Simulation model is implemented and experiments are performed using the Network Simulatior-2 (NS-2).