The Survey of Packet Loss Differentiation Techniques in TCP

Abstract

In wireless network packet loss occurs due to congestion, Wireless channel error and link failure. Here Transmission control protocol cannot respond the packet loss properly. It degrades its performance by presuming the loss due to congestion. So it has become important to find the reasons behind these losses for improvement in TCP's performance. Many researchers have worked in this area and evaluated algorithms which differentiate the cause of packet losses. This paper surveys about various techniques mitigate Packet Loss Differentiation as well as focuses on certain open areas for future research. Most of the surveyed reveals that researchers have worked for the congestion loss only, handful schemes cannot identify the link failure loss. The TCP's performance can be improved with proper loss recovery technique, suitable congestion avoidance scheme and there can be mechanism to switch between suitable Loss Recovery Algorithm (LRA) or congestion avoidance scheme automatically as per identified loss.