Performance evaluation of TCP/RLP protocol stack over CDMA wireless link

Due to the high frame error rate in wireless communication channels, an additional link layer protocol, Radio Link Protocol (RLP), has been introduced in the newly approvedData Services Option Standard for Wideband Spread Spectrum Digital Cellular System. In this paper, we investigate performance issues of a typical Cod Division Multiple Access (CDMA) wireless link using the protocol stack given in the standard. In particular, we focus on the dynamics of the TCP and RLP layers of the protocol stack since the fluctuation of system performance is largely caused by Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) mechanisms implemented at these two layers. We compare the network performance of default parameter setting to those of other possible parameter settings. Analytical and simulation results presented in this paper can provide guidance to those attempting to further improve performance of interest.