Current and future work: iTCP for wireless Networks

Currently we are working on a novel scheme based on the iTCP model to provide enhanced services tailored for wireless networks. We have augmented the event model and the API to include wireless networks' related events (e.g. handoff events and packet loss due to high BER). The API will allow applications to subscribe to these events and receive enhanced wireless link service. In the new scheme, event tracking mechanism will be deployed in multiple network protocols to facilitate the interactivity service (e.g. iTCP, iIP). These protocols will pass selected events to the application layer where all the work will be done.

We intend to implement the proposed scheme on Mobile-IP running on FreeBSD-4.5 OS. Through this implementation we will show the feasibility of the scheme as a real solution to some of the known classical problems of the TCP/IP suite over wireless networks like:

  • Minimizing packet loss and delay during handoff and,
  • Improving TCP performance over lossy wireless links.
Through experimentation with the proposed scheme and future performance analysis, we will try to reveal the extent of its potential as a solution to these problems and compare it to existing solutions.