The effect of adaptive-rate coding on TCP performance in wireless communications

We consider the use of adaptive-rate coding with a single wireless link that is part of a TCP connection, and we examine the effect of adaptive-rate coding on the throughput of the TCP connection. The throughput of the TCP connection is determined by simulation for a time-varying, two-state wireless link and for three coding schemes: a fixed-rate extended (32,16) Reed-Solomon code, a fixed-rate extended (32,24) Reed-Solomon code, and an adaptive-rate coding system using both of the Reed-Solomon codes. The throughput of the TCP connection with the adaptive-rate coding system is compared with the throughput achieved using fixed-rate coding with either the (32,24) code or the (32,16) code. It is shown that adaptive-rate coding results in significantly higher TCP throughput than results with fixed-rate coding.