SCTP switchover performance issues in WLAN environments

Sheila Fallon, Paul Jacob, Yuansong Qiao, Liam Murphy, Enda Fallon, Austin Hanley

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The increased number and diversity of underlying networks have made transparent network migration a necessity. Through its support for multi-homing the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) enables seamless network mobility by abstracting multiple underlying physical paths into a single end-to-end association. One of these paths is selected as the primary. When a number of retransmission failures occur on the primary path, switchover is initiated to a secondary path. The number of retransmission attempts before switchover is initiated can be configured; however, the delay between each retransmission is managed internally in SCTP using a Retransmission TimeOut (RTO) value. This paper shows that the current SCTP mechanism for calculating RTO values is inappropriate in WLAN environments, since increased Round Trip Times (RTT) significantly distort RTO calculations. Experimental and simulated results indicate that SCTP behaves in a counterintuitive manner which allows more time for switchover as network conditions degrade: delays of up to 187 seconds can be experienced before switchover occurs. We show that additional SCTP parameters need to be carefully configured in order to reduce this switchover delay to a more acceptable level.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2008 5th IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference, CCNC 2008
Pages564-568
Number of pages5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2008
Event2008 5th IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference, CCNC 2008 - Las Vegas, NV, United States
Duration: 10 Jan 200812 Jan 2008

Publication series

Name2008 5th IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference, CCNC 2008

Conference

Conference2008 5th IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference, CCNC 2008
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityLas Vegas, NV
Period10/01/0812/01/08

Keywords

  • Heterogeneous networks
  • SCTP
  • Switchover
  • WLAN

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