The use of wireless networks is expanding, including mesh networks that increase the geographic coverage of an access point, and ad hoc networks that provide instantaneous and self-configuring communications when wired infrastructure is not available. The viability of these networks is hampered, however, by the poor performance of TCP when it operates over multiple wireless hops. Many alternative transport protocols are being designed, but the lack of experiments on deployed networks severely limits the impact and relevance of current research in the area.
This project designs a software toolkit that simplifies the process of developing wireless transport protocols. Protocols can be written in user space, enabling researchers to avoid the complexities of kernel development and focus their efforts on experimental evaluation. The project uses the toolkit to implement a number of leading wireless transport protocols, comparing their performance, examining the decomposition of functionality between end hosts and routers, and evaluating TCP compatibility. The end result will be a comprehensive study of wireless transport protocols in an experimental setting, demonstrating how to obtain high throughput while working seamlessly with existing TCP stacks.
The toolkit will be developed as an open source project, so that it can be used by the research community to develop new transport protocols or to examine the interaction of wireless transport protocols with new MAC designs, network coding, or routing protocols. The project will also develop curriculum for incorporating a mesh testbed into a senior-level course in networking, with accompanying labs and instructional materials.
