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Resolving Bufferbloat in TCP Communication over IEEE 802.11n WLAN by Reducing MAC Retransmission Limit at Low Data Rate

Authors:
Masataka Nomoto
Celimuge Wu
Satoshi Ohzahata
Toshihiko Kato

Keywords: Wireless LAN; IEEE 802.11n; TCP; Dymamic Rate Switching; Bufferbloat Problem; Block Acknowledgment.

Abstract:
IEEE 802.11n wireless local area networks (LANs) provide the data transmission rate of hundreds of Mbps. At the same time, they support multiple data rates and the dynamic rate switching functionality in order to cope with various radio conditions. However, a low data rate may cause a long delay in transmission control protocol (TCP) communications, which is called a bufferbloat problem. In this paper, we infer that one possible reason for the delay is the powerful retransmission capability supported by 802.11n, and propose a method which weakens this capability intentionally for TCP communications when the data rate is low. This paper evaluates the performance of our proposal, the native 802.11n, and CoDel, which is an active queue management approach coping with the bufferbloat problem. It shows that CoDel and our proposal improve the delay performance and that CoDel sometimes reduces the throughput under a high data rate condition.

Pages: 69 to 74

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2017

Publication date: April 23, 2017

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4413

ISBN: 978-1-61208-546-3

Location: Venice, Italy

Dates: from April 23, 2017 to April 27, 2017