Future of TCP on Wi-Fi 6

The Linux TCP/IP stack contributions have recently pointed all in the same direction: maximize the available throughput while maintaining low latency. These activities started by mitigating the buffebloat phenomenon at the network bottleneck as much as possible. So far, the deployed solutions have been designed by considering standard models for the bottleneck that could be either wireless or wired. The introduction of Wi-Fi 6 is dislocating the bottleneck of standard home and office WLAN from the radio access point to the 1 Gbps interface, the wired interface that points to the internet service provider; this bottleneck migration leads to a new real-case bottleneck model, which is hybrid. Such an environment embraces new technologies and provides new challenges for the old TCP protocol when applied to hybrid bottlenecks and operating in conjunction with the TCP side-modules, which are now part of the novel Linux kernels. This paper aims to highlight the TCP performance considering the new TCP modules and novel scenarios opened by Wi-Fi 6 with real-case hybrid bottlenecks.