The link signal strength agent (LSSA) protocol for TCP implementation in wireless mobile ad hoc networks

Applying TCP to wireless networks gives rise to a series of problems because of the intrinsic characteristic of the TCP flow control mechanism. We study the problem in mobile ad-hoc networks where wireless mobile hosts communicate with each other in the absence of a fixed infrastructure. In general in wireless mobile ad hoc networks, the packet losses are mainly due to one of the following reasons: (1) route failure/change due to change of network topology; (2) high link error rate; (3) congestion. Each mobile host emits a beacon signal that is used to identify itself and notify its neighbors about its existence. We use this method as an indication for the TCP connection to improve its performance. To accomplish it, we introduce and design a new layer, namely the link signal strength agent (LSSA) layer. The initial performance results indicate that the proposed new approach overcomes the problems associated with the nature of the wireless links and the mobility of nodes and therefore is applicable in dynamic wireless networks.