Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems (제어로봇시스템학회논문지)

Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems (제어로봇시스템학회)
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TCP Acknowledgement Compression for Fairness Among Uplink TCP Flows in IEEE 802.11n WLANs

IEEE 802.11n 무선랜에서 상향링크 TCP 플로우간 형평상 향상을 위한 TCP ACK 압축기법

  • Kim, Minho (Digital Media & Communications R&D Center, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.) ;
  • Park, Eun-Chan (Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Dongguk University-Seoul) ;
  • Kim, Woongsup (Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Dongguk University-Seoul)
  • 김민호 (삼성전자 DMC R&D 센터) ;
  • 박은찬 (동국대학교-서울, 컴퓨터정보통신공학부) ;
  • 김웅섭 (동국대학교-서울, 컴퓨터정보통신공학부)
  • Received : 2013.05.30
  • Accepted : 2013.06.05
  • Published : 2013.07.01
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Abstract

This paper deals with the problem of unfairness among uplink TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) flows associated with frame aggregation employed in IEEE 802.11n WLANs (Wireless Local Area Networks). When multiple stations have uplink TCP flows and transmit TCP data packets to an AP (Access Point), the AP has to compete for channel access with stations for the transmission of TCP ACK (acknowledgement) packets to the stations. Due to this contention-based channel access, TCP ACKs tend to be accumulated in the AP's downlink buffer. We show that the frame aggregation in the MAC (Medium Access Control) layer increases TCP ACK losses in the AP and leads to the serious unfair operation of TCP congestion control. To resolve this problem, we propose the TAC (TCP ACK Compression) mechanism operating at the top of the AP's interface queue. By exploiting the properties of cumulative TCP ACK and frame aggregation, TAC serves only the representative TCP ACK without serving redundant TCP ACKs. Therefore, TAC reduces queue occupancy and prevents ACK losses due to buffer overflow, which significantly contributes to fairness among uplink TCP flows. Also, TAC enhances the channel efficiency by not transmitting unnecessary TCP ACKs. The simulation results show that TAC tightly assures fairness under various network conditions while increasing the aggregate throughput, compared to the existing schemes.

Keywords

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