TCP/IP over wireless links: performance evaluation

The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is a large extended transport protocol, mainly used in fixed networks. It works well in those networks in which the main cause of packet loss is congestion. Some mechanisms included in TCP optimise their use in this kind of networks. Today, Internet users need access it over wireless links in order to get this service anywhere they are. However, TCP does not work well in wireless environments where losses are due to high bit error rates (BER). We evaluate the end-to-end throughput of a TCP connection with a wireless link. First, we demonstrate the impact of high BER in TCP performance. Then, we evaluate the impacts of header compression.