Improving TCP congestion control for wireless sensor networks

Abstract

The development of wireless technologies makes it necessary to find a way of improving Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) efficiency with regards to optimal utilization of wireless channel capacity. This paper describes a modification to the TCP congestion control for use in wireless sensor networks. It shows that by slightly modifying the algorithm of the TCP, it can be made to respond better to wireless links, while maintaining its advantages on the wired networks at the same time. This is certainly a very desirable feature as the conventional TCP in most cases contradicts the demands of the wireless links of the network. Our simulation results indicate that the modified TCP gives better performance in terms of higher throughput, delay, retransmission, and energy consumption than conventional TCP protocol.