Modeling and performance analysis of a split-tcp scheme for mobile internet access
Joseph L. Hammond, D.L. Noneaker, Feng Xie · 2000
Enhanced Mobile-End TCP (EMTCP) provides a comprehensive solution to problems arising from using TCP in mobile Internet access. The end-to-end performance of EMTCP is studied by using an analytical approach. The basic network topology used throughout the whole study is a two-hop connection which consists of a fixed host, a base station and a mobile host. The fixed host communicates with the base station over wire-line networks by using TCP. The base station communicates with the mobile host via wireless channels. Two basic types of ARQ schemes are considered for wireless error recovery, i.e., the go-back-N and stop-and-wait schemes. A tractable steady-state analytical model is developed for a single EMTCP connection. The model is quite general. In this model, any first-order finite-state Markov chain can be used as the wireless channel model and two different ARQ schemes, the go-back-N and stop-and-wait schemes can be used for wireless error recovery. The study with respect to a single EMTCP connection is extended to multiple EMTCP connections. Based on the analysis, a mobile host admission control and TDMA-based channel allocation algorithm is proposed to provide guaranteed throughput to every participating EMTCP connection. All the analytical models are verified by developing and using a detailed simulation. The verified analytical models are used to determine the effects of key parameters on end-to-end performance. The performance study provides some important guidelines for network design. Besides the steady-state analysis, the dynamic behavior of an EMTCP connection with random wire-line packet losses is also explored by using a fluid flow approximation.