To send or not to send: implementing deferred transmissions in a mobile host

Abstract

As mobile hosts move, they encounter changing network characteristics. Characteristics such as bandwidth, reliability can change drastically when a mobile host moves from indoor to outdoor environment and vice versa. A mobile host can find itself in a lossy environment due to external conditions such as interference and fading. Existing end-to-end protocols are designed with an assumption that packet loss is a random and rare event. However due to mobility of hosts, there can be transient yet significant packet loss. In this paper we consider the effect of mobility on unreliable protocols such as UDP. We provide a mechanism by which unnecessary loss of packets can be avoided by allowing transmission only under "good" link conditions.