TCP over packet radio

Abstract

A wireless packet data communications system utilizing the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is studied. A traffic model that exhibits self-similarity is considered for wireless Internet applications. The radio channel is modeled as a two-state Markov fading channel. The performance of TCP over such a packet radio link is obtained through analysis and simulation. Theoretical bounds are derived for system load and user performance. To gain insight to dimensioning of wireless packet data networks, TCP throughput and delay are studied with respect to the number of users and file size. The impact of radio link retransmission and system load on TCP timeout is also investigated.