Improving TCP performance over wireless links

TCP is the most common transport protocol used in the Internet. It was designed primarily for wired networks. The characteristics of wireless links is very different from wired links, particularly in terms of the loss behaviour. This results in poor TCP performance over wireless links. We have proposed enhancements to TCP so that it can differentiate between a loss due to congestion, and a loss due to noise in the wireless link. With this knowledge, TCP can react differently to the two kinds of losses, leading to improved performance. The modified TCP is compatible with existing implementations.