Comparison between random frame error and SINR-based transmission power control in DS-CDMA cellular system from the viewpoint of TCP performance

Many reports have investigated TCP performance over wireless links, where a high and time-invariant frame error rate is assumed for the wireless link characteristic. However, the frame error rate is temporally and geographically changeable by fading and interference in cellular systems. On the other hand, SINR-based transmission power control, which is employed for randomization of the frame errors in DS-CDMA cellular systems, cannot always work properly depending on the control parameters or the channel characteristics. In this paper, we investigate TCP performance over wireless links in a DS-CDMA cellular system by computer simulation. From the simulation results, it has been found that the assumption of random frame error is valid only for a limited part of the TCP performance even in the system with an SINR-based transmission power control scheme.