Network Coded TCP (CTCP)

TL;DR

CTCP is a new reliable transport protocol that uses network coding to enhance TCP's performance in lossy and dynamic wireless networks while maintaining compatibility with existing infrastructure.

Contribution

It introduces a transport layer approach with network coding that improves TCP performance and compatibility in wireless networks.

Findings

Significantly improves TCP performance in lossy networks

Maintains backward compatibility with existing wireless equipment

Demonstrates effectiveness through extensive testing

Abstract

We introduce CTCP, a reliable transport protocol using network coding. CTCP is designed to incorporate TCP features such as congestion control, reliability, and fairness while significantly improving on TCP's performance in lossy, interference-limited and/or dynamic networks. A key advantage of adopting a transport layer over a link layer approach is that it provides backward compatibility with wireless equipment installed throughout existing networks. We present a portable userspace implementation of CTCP and extensively evaluate its performance in both testbed and production wireless networks.