Global Journal of Computer Science and Technology

Network, Web & Security

Volume 12 Issue 17 Version 1.0 Year 2012
Type: Double Blind Peer Reviewed International Research Journal
Publisher: Global Journals Inc. (USA)
Online ISSN: 0975-4172 & Print ISSN: 0975-4350

Transmission Control Protocol over Wireless LAN

By Dr. Gagandeep Singh Barar & Dr. G.N. Singh
Panjab University, Chandigarh
Abstract - 802.11 standards based WLAN is one very successful technology in commerce. Huge
number of WLAN has been deployed across the world. It’s very worthwhile to investigate link
characteristics of WLAN and its effects to upper layers, especially TCP protocol which is used by
numerous network applications. The 802.11 standard is firstly introduced in this section.
GJCST-E Classification : C.2.1

Transmission Control Protocol over Wireless LAN

Strictly as per the compliance and regulations of:

© 2012. Dr. Gagandeep Singh Barar & Dr. G.N. Singh. This is a research/review paper, distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), permitting all non-
commercial use, distribution, and reproduction inany medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 Transmission Control Protocol over Wireless
LAN
Dr. Gagandeep Singh Barar α & Dr. G.N. Singh σ

I. Introduction II. 802.11 standard overview

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02.11 standards based WLAN is one very The 802.11 standard is approved by LAN MAN
successful technology in commerce. Huge number Standards Committee of the IEEE Computer Society for
of WLAN has been deployed across the world. It’s LAN over wireless medium. This standard is part of a
very worthwhile to investigate link characteristics of family of standards for local and metropolitan area 5
WLAN and its effects to upper layers, especially TCP networks. Figure 1 depicts the whole standards family.
protocol which is used by numerous network

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applications. The 802.11 standard is firstly introduced in
this section.

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Figure 1 : Protocol Architecture of 802 Standard Family
The 802.11 standard includes a series of
specifications which standardize MAC and Physical
Layer of WLAN. This standard includes several different
Physical Layers (802.11, 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g);
but these Physical Layers use the same MAC layer. The
following figure gives one overview of specifications of
the 802.11 standard.

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 Transmission Control Protocol over Wireless LAN

802.11 MAC Layer

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802.11 PLCP 802.11a PLCP 802.11b PLCP 802.11g PLCP

802.11
6 PHY
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Layer
802.11 PMD 802.11a PMD 802.11b PMD 802.11g PMD

Figure 2 : The 802.11 Standard

Each physical layer includes two sub-layers, interacts with PLCP layer and provides the actual means
PLCP and PMD. PLCP is one convergence procedure to to transmit data on medium. The following table
map MAC PDU into a frame format designed for radio summarizes the technical details of different PMD sub-
transceiver of corresponding PMD layer. PMD layer layers of 802.11.
Table 1 : PMD details of 802.11
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802.11 802.11b 802.11a 802.11g

Frequency 2.4G 2.4G 5G 2.4G
PHY FHSS, DSSS,IR DSSS OFDM OFDM
Data Rate DSSS: 1, 2 1, 2, 5.5, 11 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, …20,…, 54
(Mbps) FHSS: 0.5-4.5 48, 54
IR: 1, 2
Channel 4 4 8 4

*IR physical layer is seldom used in practice. to act as one station, AP also provides access to DS for
The deployment based on original 802.11 is being other stations in this BSS.
substituted by 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g. WLAN based The DS and BSSs allow IEEE 802.11 to create a
on 802.11b dominates the currently WLAN deployment. wireless network of arbitrary size and complexity. IEEE
The factors of the 802.11 standard which affects 802.11 refers to this type of network as the ESS
link characteristics will be described in the following (Extended Service Set) network. It is usually called as
sub-sections, such as network architecture, medium Infrastructure Network. The following figure illustrates the
access method, etc. simplest ESS network.

III. Network architecture

BSS (Basic Service Set) is the basic building
block of 802.11 LAN. It includes two or more mobile
stations which can directly communicate with each other
through wireless medium.
One DS (Distribute System) can be used to
interconnect multiple BSSs. In this situation, Each BSS
has one special station---AP (Access Point). In addition

© 2012 Global Journals Inc. (US)

 Transmission Control Protocol over Wireless LAN

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Figure 3 : 802.11 Infrastructure Network (ESS)
DS in ESS normally connects with Internet or IV. DCF and PCF
other wired networks. In this way, mobile station can
access Internet or other network by WLAN. The different physical layers of 802.11 use the
There is another network type in 802.11, Ad hoc same MAC layer. MAC layer of 802.11 uses one
Network. In ad hoc network, there is no DS. There is just CSMA/CA protocol. It does not use Collision Detection
one independent BSS and there is no station act as AP. of 802.2 because the transmitter cannot detect collision
Stations in ad hoc network communicate with each in wireless medium.
other directly or relaying by intermediate stations. The basic medium access method of 802.11
WLANs with different network architectures own MAC is a DCF (Distributed Coordination Function). Its

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very different link characteristics. The next section will simple operation mode uses two-way handshaking
describe how the two network types affect link (DATA-ACK). The following figure gives one simple
characteristics in detail. example.

Figure 4 : Basic Access of MAC protocol

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 Transmission Control Protocol over Wireless LAN

To send a packet, a station X first listens to the other stations and if the station which is polled has
channel for time TDIFS. If there is silence for TDIFS, X packets to transmit, the station will transfer frame. The
proceeds with the transmission (e.g., station A in figure following figure is one example for frame transmission in
4); otherwise, X waits for the first TDIFS of silence after PCF.
the current busy period, then backs off for a random
interval (e.g., station C in figure 4). For each packet, X References Références Referencias
initializes a contention window size W to be Wmin. X sets 1. IEEE Standard, Wireless LAN medium access
a timer to a random integer uniformly distributed over 0, control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY)
1 … W, and decrements it after every Tslot period of specifications, IEEE P802.11, 1999
silence, but suspends it if another station Y begins 2. IEEE Standard, Wireless LAN medium access
Year 2012

transmission – this suspension spans the control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY)
acknowledgment as well (see below); when the timer specifications---high-speed physical layer in the 5
reaches 0, X begins transmission of its packet (e.g., GHz band, IEEE P802.11, 1999
stations B, D and E in figure 4). Time is thus discretized 3. IEEE Standard, Wireless LAN medium access
8 by Tslot to support back-off timers, and a transmission control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY)
typically occupies multiple slots. The packet is specifications---higher-speed physical layer
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transmitted in its entirety, even if there is a collision, extension in the 2.4GHz band, IEEE P802.11, 1999
since X does not do collision detection. 4. N. Golmie, R.E. Van Dyck, A. Soltanian, A. Tonnerre
The receiver uses the CRC bits in each packet and O. Rebala, “Interference Evaluation of Bluetooth
to check for collisions and, if no error is detected, sends and IEEE 802.11b Systems”, Wireless Networks, V9,
an ACK (acknowledgment) after time TSIFS (SIFS is short pp201-211, 2003
inter-frame space; TSIFS < TDIFS). If the sender does not 5. Arunesh Mishra, Minho Shin, William Arbaugh, “An
detect an ACK within an ACK-timeout, it enters a Empirical analysis of the IEEE 802.11 MAC Layer
retransmit back-off: if W is smaller than the maximum Handoff Process”, citeseer.nj.nec.com/541775.html
window size Wmax(W=2^m*Wmin, m is the number of 6. Y. Tian, K. Xu, N. Ansari, "TCP in Wireless
retransmission attempts), then W is doubled; X sets a Environment: Problems and Solution," IEEE
timer to a value uniformly chosen from less than the new Communications, vol 43. no.3, 2005.
W, and retransmitted when this timer expires just as
before. If retransmission time exceeds d, the packet is
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thrown away and new packet will be transmitted. Finally,

a station must separate two consecutive packets by a
random back-off, even if the channel is idle for DIFS
after the first transmission (e.g., station B in figure 4.)
In the basic mode of DCF, back off is designed
to avoid contention. The contention window size affects
MAC layer’s throughput. If it’s too small, too many
collisions happen; otherwise, stations idle for too much
time and bandwidth is wasted. The contention window
size also affects RTT of wireless link seen by upper
layer.
In DCF, RTS/CTS is adopted to solve hidden
station problem and to alleviate effects of possible
collisions. RTS and CTS is short control message. They
are used to acquire the channel for a period time by one
station; other stations update their NAV (Network
allocation Vector) according to received RTS/CTS and
do not transmit frames in these periods. Thus only
RTS/CTS may collide with each other; the adverse effect
is much less than collisions among long data packets.
AP can also use PCF based on DCF as the
medium access method. The PCF provides contention-
free frame transmission. The AP use Beacon frame
which contains one DTIM element to begin one CFP
(Contention-Free Period) and other stations update their
NAV according information in beacon frame. In this
period, AP polls other stations and other stations can
not initiate data transmission. AP can send frame to
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