Simulation-Based Analysis of TCP Over Beyond 3G Cellular Multi-Hop Networks

Next-generation communications networks will comprise third-generation (3G) cellular and multi-hop ad hoc networks, in particular, the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and the IEEE 802.11 ad hoc networks. The paper has evaluated the performance of transmission control protocol (TCP) over an integrated UMTS and IEEE 802.11 multi-hop ad hoc network for bulk data transfers. The IEEE 802.11b was used. The TCP performance was evaluated for four dedicated UMTS radio channels with bit rates ranging from 64 kb/s to 2 Mb/s with varying block error rates. The throughput simulation results show that the UMTS radio channel is the performance bottleneck for bit rates up to 128 kb/s. However, for a 2 Mb/s channel, the performance is solely constrained by the IEEE 802.11b multi-hop ad hoc network. We have showed that the performance can be improved by using a larger TCP packet size