Reliability of mobile ad hoc networks through performance analysis of TCP variants over AODV

Abstract

The need for reliable communication, with no data loss, no duplication and no out of order delivery of packets becomes a vital necessity for all application programs in all networks. Transmission Control Protocol provides reliable data delivery service to programs running TCP as underlying protocol for transmission of data. Ad hoc networks provide connectivity to mobile computing devices regardless of any fixed infrastructure and physical location. The decision to deploy TCP in ad hoc network becomes difficult due to the availability of different variants of MANET routing protocols especially when mobility is an issue. This paper analyzes different sophisticated TCP Variant protocols with AODV, a MANET routing protocol to enable reliable communication by measuring different parameters required such as performance of packets delivery rate, average end-to-end delay, and packet dropping rate. From various differentiable results, a combination of TCP Vegas and AODV ad hoc routing protocol is chosen and refined to achieve desirable reliable communication. The refinement proves a better solution for deploying TCP in MANET with decidedly mobile environment.