Enhancing energy efficient TCP by partial reliability

We present a study on the effects on a mobile system´s energy efficiency of enhancing, with partial reliability, our energy efficient TCP variant (E²TCP) (see Donckers, L. et al., Proc. 2nd Asian Int. Mobile Computing Conf. - AMOC2002, p.18-28, 2002). Partial reliability is beneficial for multimedia applications and is especially attractive in wireless communication environments. It allows applications to trade a controlled amount of data loss for a higher throughput, lower delays, and lower energy consumption. In the design of E²TCP, we provide solutions to four problem areas in TCP that prevent it from reaching high levels of energy efficiency. We have implemented a simulation model of the protocol, and the results show that E²TCP has a significant higher energy efficiency than TCP.