Improving TCP Performance in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks Using Mobility Prediction

In mobile ad hoc networks node movements induce frequent topology changes. Therefore, traffic paths are often interrupted, until an ad hoc routing protocol recovers the path failure. These disruptions have negative impact on the network throughput, particularly when the transport protocol is TCP. In this paper we analyze the effect of route disconnections on TCP performance and present a routing protocol enhancement, called TCP-HOT to overcome route disruptions using a mobility prediction based route handoff prior to route failure. Through simulations we show that mobility prediction based route handoff can improve the performance of ad hoc networks in sense of throughput increase. The method can be deployed in the nodes without requiring any change in the current TCP/IP stack.