Evaluation for TCP with delayed ACK option in wireless multi-hop networks
Shanfeng Xu, Tarek Saadawi · 2002
In multi-hop wireless networks, the TCP data packet stream has to compete for limited bandwidth with its ACK stream. In this paper, we investigate and evaluate the performance of several prevalent TCP algorithms using the delayed acknowledgment (DA) option defined in IETF RFC 1122, which allows the TCP receiver to transmit an ACK for every two incoming packets. After extensively comparing the existing TCP versions (including Tahoe, Reno, New Reno, Sack and Vegas) by simulation, we show that with the DA option, the TCP connection can gain 15-32% output improvement. We strongly recommend using the DA option in TCP applications in wireless multi-hop networks.