TCP Issues in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks: Challenges and Solutions

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are a kind of very complex distributed communication systems with wireless mobile nodes that can be freely and dynamically self-organized into arbitrary and temporary network topologies. MANETs inherit several limitations of wireless networks, meanwhile make new challenges arising from the specificity of MANETs, such as route failures, hidden terminals and exposed terminals. When TCP is applied in a MANET environment, a number of tough problems have to be dealt with. In this paper, a comprehensive survey on this dynamic field is given. Specifically, for the first time all factors impairing TCP performance are identified based on network protocol hierarchy, i.e., lossy wireless channel at the physical layer; excessive contention and unfair access at the MAC layer; frail routing protocol at the network layer, the MAC layer and the network layer related mobile node; unfit congestion window size at the transport layer and the transport layer related asymmetric path. How these factors degrade TCP performance is clearly explained. Then, based on how to alleviate the impact of each of these factors listed above, the existing solutions are collected as comprehensively as possible and classified into a number of categories, and their advantages and limitations are discussed. Based on the limitations of these solutions, a set of open problems for designing more robust solutions is suggested.