Testbed based experimental analysis of transport protocols over wireless ad hoc networks

Abstract

Ad hoc networks are networks with no infrastructure and self-organized in nature. ad hoc networks allow nodes to form network when they come into range of each other provided nodes are configured in ad hoc mode. But these types of network are challenges like high bit error rates, route failures due to mobility, high noise, signal fading and low speed etc. to deal with. Due to this, protocols which are widely used in traditional wired networks may not perform well in MANETs. lower layers like MAC and network layer are either completely changed like 802.11 instead of 802.3 at MAC layer and introducing reactive routing protocols instead of only proactive routing at network layer or significant improvement schemes have been proposed for wireless networks in the existing legacy wired network protocols. But transport layer in MANET is mostly similar to wired networks except some improvements like TCP-ELFN and TCP-Feedback and new transport protocols like Ad hoc-TCP (ATCP), Transport Protocol for Ad hoc networks (TPA) and Ad-hoc Transport Pro- tool (ATP).performance degradation of TCP over wireless links is mainly due to wireless characteristics, TCP features like self-clocking, loss based congestion control, coupling of congestion and reliability, slow start. Several studies have been carried out to evaluate performance of TCP over MANETs but most of them are simulation based studies. But as simulation scenarios can not model exactly the unpredictable nature of wireless environment, we have decided to analyze performance of trans- port protocols over experimental test bed which can be more accurate evaluation of protocols in real-life situation. Performance of 2 transport protocols is analyzed.