TCP state-based service differentiation in wireless network

Abstract

In traditional computer networks, service differentiation is done based on application flows. This results in high packet loss for low priority traffic flows. If the low priority flows are TCP based applications then the packet loss results in increased congestion due to the additional overhead of connection reestablishment, retransmit and recovery mechanism. This effect of service differentiation in wireless networks is severe because packets may be dropped due to link errors. Wireless networks have limited bandwidth and the distance from access point also affects the bandwidth available. In this paper, the authors discuss an alternative approach that will improve the performance of TCP flows (both high priority and low priority) without affecting the QoS for high priority traffic