Performance of TFRC during vertical handovers events in heterogeneous networks

The TCP-friendly Rate Control (TFRC) is an adaptation scheme that provides TCP-friendly rate adaptation for Internet multimedia applications. While extensions have being proposed for wireless networks, TFRC was initially designed for wired networks. However, the behavior of TFRC in heterogeneous wireless networks, such the ones envisaged for the Beyond 3G and 4G systems, has not yet being extensively studied. The purpose of this paper is to study TFRC performance in heterogeneous systems, especially during vertical handovers. The most significant mechanisms that TFRC provides for adapting to abrupt network characteristics changes are highlighted, these have not yet being thoroughly described and studied. In order to depict TFRC’s performance in various vertical handover cases relevant simulations results are presented. TFRC performance is mixed, since for some cases it incorporates mechanisms that can provide more acceptable than initially expected performance. However, in the general case, the original TFRC is appropriate for heterogeneous networks. This paper gives attention to the areas where TFRC extensions are required in order to perform gracefully during vertical handovers.