2. TCP-Mechanisms
TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is a standard that defines how to establish and
maintain a network conversation through which application programs can exchange
data. TCP works with the Internet Protocol (IP), which defines how computers send
packets of data to each other.
congestion control
packet loss in fixed networks typically due to (temporary) overload situations
routers have to discard packets as soon as the buffers are full
TCP recognizes congestion only indirectly via missing (I.e., timed out) acknowledgements
Immediate retransmissions unwise, they would only contribute to the congestion and make it
even worse
slow-start algorithm is used as a reactive action to reduce the network load
3. TCP-Mechanisms
slow-start algorithm
sender calculates/negotiates a congestion window threshold for a receiver
start with a congestion window size equal to one segment
exponential increase of the congestion window up to the congestion threshold, then
linear increase
missing acknowledgement causes the reduction of the congestion threshold to one half
of the current congestion window
congestion window starts again with one segment
4. TCP-Mechanisms
fast retransmit/fast recovery
TCP sends an acknowledgement only after receiving a packet
if a sender receives several acknowledgements for the same packet, this is due to a gap
in received packets at the receiver
It indicates that the receiver got all packets up to the gap and is actually receiving
packets, but some are missing (hence gap)
Conclusion: packet loss not due to congestion, retransmit, continue with current
congestion window (do not use slow-start)
5. TCP-Mechanisms
Implications on mobility
typically wrong in wireless networks, here we often have packet loss due to transmission
errors
furthermore, mobility itself can cause packet loss, if e.g. a mobile node roams from one
access point (e.g. foreign agent in Mobile IP) to another while there are still packets in
transit to the old access point and forwarding from old to new access point is not
possible for some reason.
6. Mobile Network and Transport Layers..
Classical TCP improvements.
Indirect TCP
Snooping TCP
Mobile TCP
Mobile IP
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
Mobile Ad Hoc Routing Protocols
Multicast routing
TCP over Wireless Networks
Fast Retransmit / Fast Recovery
Transmission/Timeout Freezing-Selective Retransmission
Transaction Oriented TCP- TCP over 2.5 / 3G wireless Networks
7. Indirect TCP
Indirect TCP or I-TCP segments:
no changes to the basic TCP protocol for hosts connected to the wired Internet, millions
of computers use this protocol (or slight variants of it)
optimized TCP protocol for mobile hosts.
splitting of the TCP connection at, e.g., the foreign agent into 2 TCP connections, no real
end-to-end connection any longer
hosts in the fixed part of the net do not notice the characteristics of the wireless part.
8. I-TCP segments a connection into two parts
.
mobile host
access point
(foreign agent) „wired“ Internet
„wireless“ TCP standard TCP
correspondent
host
9. I-TCP socket and state migration
.
mobile host
access point2
Internet
access point1
socket migration
and state transfer
correspondent
host
11. I-TCP Advantages..
Advantages
no changes in the fixed network necessary, no changes for the hosts (TCP protocol)
necessary, all current optimizations to TCP (Reno, Vegas, etc.) still work
transmission errors on the wireless link do not propagate into the fixed network
simple to control, mobile TCP is used only for one hop between, e.g., a foreign agent
and mobile host
therefore, very fast retransmission of packets is possible, the short delay on the mobile
hop is known
It is easy to use different protocols for wired and wireless networks.
12. I-TCP Disadvantages..
Disadvantages
loss of end-to-end semantics, an acknowledgement to a sender does now not any
longer mean that a receiver really got a packet, foreign agents might crash
higher latency possible due to buffering of data within the foreign agent and forwarding
to a new foreign agent.
Security issue:- The foreign agent must be a trusted entity.
13. Snooping TCP:
The main drawback of I-TCP is the segmentation of the single TCP connection
into two TCP connections, which loses the original end-to-end TCP semantic.
A new enhancement, which leaves the TCP connection intact and is completely
transparent, is Snooping TCP.
The main function is to buffer data close to the mobile host to perform fast local
retransmission in case of packet loss.
the foreign agent buffers all packets with destination mobile host and
additionally ‘snoops’ the packet flow in both directions to recognize
acknowledgements.
The mobile host can now retransmit the missing packet immediately. Reordering of
packets is done automatically at the correspondent host by TCP.
16. Snooping TCP:
Data transfer to the mobile host
FA buffers data until it receives ACK of the MH, FA detects packet loss via duplicated ACKs or time-
out
fast retransmission possible, transparent for the fixed network
Data transfer from the mobile host
FA detects packet loss on the wireless link via sequence numbers, FA answers directly with a NACK
to the MH
MH can now retransmit data with only a very short delay
Integration of the MAC layer
MAC layer often has similar mechanisms to those of TCP
thus, the MAC layer can already detect duplicated packets due to retransmissions and discard them
Problems
snooping TCP does not isolate the wireless link as good as I-TCP
snooping might be useless depending on encryption schemes
17. Advantages of snooping TCP:
The end-to-end TCP semantic is preserved.
Most of the enhancements are done in the foreign agent itself which keeps
correspondent host unchanged.
Handover of state is not required as soon as the mobile host moves to
another foreign agent. Even though packets are present in the buffer, time out
at the CH occurs and the packets are transmitted to the new COA.
No problem arises if the new foreign agent uses the enhancement or not.
If not, the approach automatically falls back to the standard solution.
18. Disadvantages of snooping TCP:
Snooping TCP does not isolate the behaviour of the wireless link as well as
I-TCP. Transmission errors may propagate till CH.
Using negative acknowledgements between the foreign agent and the mobile
host assumes additional mechanisms on the mobile host. This approach is
no longer transparent for arbitrary mobile hosts.
Snooping and buffering data may be useless if certain encryption schemes are
applied end-to-end between the correspondent host and mobile host. If
encryption is used above the transport layer, (eg. SSL/TLS), snooping TCP can be
used.
19. Mobile TCP:
Both I-TCP and Snooping TCP does not help much, if a mobile host gets
disconnected. The M-TCP (mobile TCP) approach has the same goals as I-TCP
and snooping TCP: to prevent the sender window from shrinking if bit errors
or disconnection but not congestion cause current problems.
M-TCP splits the TCP connection into two parts as I-TCP does. An
unmodified TCP is used on the standard host-supervisory host (SH) connection,
while an optimized TCP is used on the SH-MH connection.
The SH monitors all packets sent to the MH and ACKs returned from the MH. If
the SH does not receive an ACK for some time, it assumes that the MH is
disconnected.
20. Advantages of M-TCP:
It maintains the TCP end-to-end semantics. The SH does not send any ACK itself
but forwards the ACKs from the MH.
If the MH is disconnected, it avoids useless retransmissions, slow starts or
breaking connections by simply shrinking the sender’s window to 0.
As no buffering is done as in I-TCP, there is no need to forward buffers to a
new SH. Lost packets will be automatically retransmitted to the SH.
21. Mobile TCP:
Special handling of lengthy and/or frequent disconnections
M-TCP splits as I-TCP does
unmodified TCP fixed network to supervisory host (SH)
optimized TCP SH to MH
Supervisory host
no caching, no retransmission
monitors all packets, if disconnection detected
set sender window size to 0
sender automatically goes into persistent mode
old or new SH reopen the window
22. Disadvantages of M-TCP:
As the SH does not act as proxy as in I-TCP, packet loss on the wireless link due to
bit errors is propagated to the sender. M-TCP assumes low bit error rates, which
is not always a valid assumption.
A modified TCP on the wireless link not only requires modifications to the
MH protocol software but also new network elements like the bandwidth
manager.
23. Fast retransmit/fast recovery
Change of foreign agent often results in packet loss
TCP reacts with slow-start although there is no congestion
Forced fast retransmit
as soon as the mobile host has registered with a new foreign agent, the MH sends
duplicated acknowledgements on purpose
this forces the fast retransmit mode at the communication partners
additionally, the TCP on the MH is forced to continue sending with the actual window
size and not to go into slow-start after registration
Advantage
simple changes result in significant higher performance
Disadvantage
further mix of IP and TCP, no transparent approach.
24. Transmission/time-out freezing
MAC layer notices connection problems even before the connection is
actually interrupted from a TCP point of view and also knows the real reason for
the interruption. The MAC layer can inform the TCP layer of an upcoming
loss of connection or that the current interruption is not caused by congestion.
TCP can now stop sending and ‘freezes’ the current state of its congestion
window and further timers. If the MAC layer notices the upcoming
interruption early enough, both the mobile and correspondent host can be
informed.
the MAC layer detects connectivity again, it signals TCP that it can resume
operation at exactly the same point where it had been forced to stop. For TCP
time simply does not advance, so no timers expire.
25. Advantages:
Advantages:
It offers a way to resume TCP connections even after long interruptions of the
connection.
It can be used together with encrypted data as it is independent of other TCP
mechanisms such as sequence no or acknowledgements .
Disadvantages:
Lots of changes have to be made in software of MH, CH and FA.
26. Selective retransmission:
TCP acknowledgements are often cumulative
ACK n acknowledges correct and in-sequence receipt of packets up to n
if single packets are missing quite often a whole packet sequence beginning at the gap
has to be retransmitted (go-back-n), thus wasting bandwidth
Selective retransmission as one solution
RFC2018 allows for acknowledgements of single packets, not only acknowledgements
of in-sequence packet streams without gaps.
sender can now retransmit only the missing packets.
Advantage
much higher efficiency
Disadvantage
more complex software in a receiver, more buffer needed at the receiver.
27. Transaction oriented TCP:
TCP phases
connection setup, data transmission, connection release
using 3-way-handshake needs 3 packets for setup and release, respectively
thus, even short messages need a minimum of 7 packets!
Transaction oriented TCP
RFC1644, T-TCP, describes a TCP version to avoid this overhead
connection setup, data transfer and connection release can be combined
thus, only 2 or 3 packets are needed
Advantage
efficiency
Disadvantage
requires changed TCP
mobility not longer transparent
29. Overview of classical enhancements to TCP for mobility:
.
Approach Mechanism Advantages Disadvantages
Indirect TCP splits TCP connection
into two connections
isolation of wireless
link, simple
loss of TCP semantics,
higher latency at
handover
Snooping TCP “snoops” data and
acknowledgements, local
retransmission
transparent for end-to-
end connection, MAC
integration possible
problematic with
encryption, bad isolation
of wireless link
M-TCP splits TCP connection,
chokes sender via
window size
Maintains end-to-end
semantics, handles
long term and frequent
disconnections
Bad isolation of wireless
link, processing
overhead due to
bandwidth management
Fast retransmit/
fast recovery
avoids slow-start after
roaming
simple and efficient mixed layers, not
transparent
Transmission/
time-out freezing
freezes TCP state at
disconnect, resumes
after reconnection
independent of content
or encryption, works for
longer interrupts
changes in TCP
required, MAC
dependant
Selective
retransmission
retransmit only lost data very efficient slightly more complex
receiver software, more
buffer needed
Transaction
oriented TCP
combine connection
setup/release and data
transmission
Efficient for certain
applications
changes in TCP
required, not transparent