Staggered-TCP for Parallel Split-Sessions across Multiple Proxies in Heterogeneous Networks

Abstract

Wired-cum-wireless networks are interconnected through proxy or gateway that acts as router and also caters for link MTU mismatch between the two networks. In IPv6 based networks, TCP is mandatory for bulk data transfer from wired to wireless host. This results in end-to-end TCP session through the default proxy. The single proxy supporting a large number of TCP sessions; is vulnerable to buffer overflow which results in end-to-end retransmissions, that degrades TCP performance. The use of split-TCP sessions across proxy has been proposed in order to improve TCP performance in heterogeneous networks by researchers. We assert that the availability of multiple proxies for interconnectivity (that is usually the case) can be exploited in order to make TCP efficient. We propose Staggered-TCP; an architecture that manages parallel split-TCP sessions across multiple proxies. Through simulations we show that for bulk data transfer, our proposed solution optimizes communication, simultaneously providing load balancing services.