End-to-end Packet Loss Differentiation Algorithms and Their Performance in Heterogeneous Networks

Transmission control protocol as one of transport layer protocols is very often used for transmission of application layer protocol data over the current Internet that integrates various types of networks from wired to wireless and even satellite networks. Wireless media are characterized by higher bit error rates resulting in other packet losses during transmission. The TCP protocol is a reliable protocol and it can cope with packet losses but decreases its performance when packets are lost due to transmission bit errors. Many modifications for the TCP protocol have been proposed and tested that utilize some of the loss differentiation algorithms. In this paper, we tested and evaluated a set of such algorithms integrated into a Selective TCP modification for several simulation scenarios. We also proposed a modification for one existing loss differentiation algorithm (Wireless Multimedia Packet Loss Discrimination algorithm) and evaluated its benefits.