Issues with wireless 802.11 networks

Abstract

Wireless networking is a relatively new technology that is rapidly replacing conventional wired network infrastructure. Whilst wireless technology has dramatically increased the portability of computer networks, it has come with a performance cost. There are inherent problems due to the nature of wireless transmission and to the imperfect implementation of the Transmission Control Protocol for non-wired networks. For a great portion of the development of the TCP protocol, wired networks were the de facto networking standard. As a result, the TCP protocol’s algorithms and parameters have been optimised to suit wired networks and the implementation for wireless networks is far from perfect. A considerable improvement in performance may be possible if the parameters / algorithms of the TCP protocol are modified in a way that better suits the nature of wireless networks.