On the cross-layer impact of TCP ACK thinning on IEEE 802.11 wireless MAC dynamics

Hyogon Kim, Heejo Lee, Sangmin Shin, Inhye Kang

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

    6 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    ACK thinning refers to the technique to discard or reduce TCP acknowledgements (ACKs) for the purpose of diverting scarce bandwidth to TCP data traffic. Delayed ACK and ACK filtering fall into the category. It has been shown that under some circumstances the technique is effective to boost the TCP throughput on wireless links, in particular the IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN (WLAN). In this paper, however, we show that ACK thinning backfires under congestion due to its cross-layer impact on the 802.11 MAC dynamics. With the ACK filtering example, we demonstrate the phenomenon and analyze the cause. Based on the analysis, we show how the IEEE 802.11 contention window size control solves the problem. Although only the ACK filtering and Delayed ACK are considered in this paper, any other techniques to save on TCP ACK bandwidth usage share the same fundamental issues.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publication2006 IEEE 64th Vehicular Technology Conference, VTC-2006 Fall
    Pages2241-2246
    Number of pages6
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2006
    Event2006 IEEE 64th Vehicular Technology Conference, VTC-2006 Fall - Montreal, QC, Canada
    Duration: 2006 Sept 252006 Sept 28

    Publication series

    NameIEEE Vehicular Technology Conference
    ISSN (Print)1550-2252

    Other

    Other2006 IEEE 64th Vehicular Technology Conference, VTC-2006 Fall
    Country/TerritoryCanada
    CityMontreal, QC
    Period06/9/2506/9/28

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Computer Science Applications
    • Electrical and Electronic Engineering
    • Applied Mathematics

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'On the cross-layer impact of TCP ACK thinning on IEEE 802.11 wireless MAC dynamics'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this