METHODS AND ARRANGEMENTS FOR IMPROVING TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL PERFORMANCE IN A CELLULAR NETWORK

• US 20140286313A1
• Filed: 11/23/2011
• Published: 09/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Wang, Yu, Fu, Jing, Bertze, Asa, Da Silva, Icaro Leonardo J., Kuivinen, Fredrik
• Granted Patent: US 9,788,362 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/331
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/163 In-band adaptation of TCP data exchange; In-band control procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/08 Reselecting an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/06 Transport layer protocols, e.g. TCP [Transport Control Protocol] over wireless transmission control protocol/Internet protocol [TCP/IP] or user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16

Abstract

A method in a network node for improving transmission control protocol, TCP, performance in a cellular network is provided. The network node handles TCP packet transferral between a user equipment and a server in the cellular network. The user equipment and the server are configured to adapt a retransmission timeout setting based on round trip times for performed TCP packet transferrals. When the network node obtains an indication of a handover outage being upcoming for the user equipment, the network node deliberately delays, in a time period preceding the indicated handover outage, a transferal of a TCP packet between the server and the user equipment to increase the round trip time for the TCP packet.

Claims

1. A method in a network node for improving transmission control protocol, TCP, performance in a cellular network, which network node handles TCP packet transferral between a user equipment and a server in the cellular network, which user equipment and which server are configured to adapt a retransmission timeout, RTO, setting based on round trip times, RTTs, for performed TCP packet transferrals, the method comprising:

when obtaining an indication of a handover outage being upcoming for the user equipment, deliberately delaying, in a time period preceding the indicated handover outage, a transferal of a TCP packet between the server and the user equipment to increase the round trip time for the TCP packet.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the TCP packet is represented by a sequence of individual TCP packets, and wherein the delaying comprises delaying the individual TCP packets in the sequence.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the TCP packets in the sequence are downlink TCP packets, and wherein the delaying of the individual TCP packets decreases towards the end of the sequence.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the delaying of the individual TCP packets first increases in the beginning of the sequence, and then decreases towards the end of the sequence.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein the TCP packets in the sequence are uplink TCP packets, and wherein the delaying of the individual TCP packets increases in the beginning of the sequence.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the delaying of the individual TCP packets first increases in the beginning of the sequence, and then becomes steady towards the end of the sequence.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the indication is obtained from an entity in control of the upcoming handover.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising obtaining an estimate of an expected round trip time for the TCP packet, and wherein the delaying is performed based on the expected round trip time.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the expected round trip time is based on a deep packet inspection of a previously transferred TCP packet.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising obtaining an estimate of an expected duration time of the handover outage, and wherein the delaying is performed based on the expected duration time of the handover outage.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising obtaining a TCP parameter, which TCP parameter is specific to the user equipment and/or to the server, and wherein the delaying is performed based on the TCP parameter.

12. A network node for improving transmission control protocol, TCP, performance in a cellular network, which network node is adapted to handle TCP packet transferral between a user equipment and a server in the cellular network, which user equipment and which server are configured to adapt a retransmission timeout setting based on round trip times for performed TCP packet transferrals, the network node comprising:

a delaying unit, which delaying unit is configured to, when obtaining an indication of a handover outage being upcoming for the user equipment, deliberately delay, in a time period preceding the indicated handover outage, a transferal of a TCP packet between the server and the user equipment to increase the round trip time for the TCP packet.

13. The network node according to claim 12, wherein the TCP packet is represented by a sequence of TCP packets, and wherein the delaying unit is further configured to delay the individual TCP packets in the sequence.

14. The network node according to claim 13, wherein the TCP packets in the sequence are downlink TCP packets, and wherein the delaying unit is further configured to decrease the delay of the individual TCP packets towards the end of the sequence.

15. The network node according to claim 14, wherein the delaying unit is further configured to first increase the delay of the individual TCP packets in the beginning of the sequence, and then decrease the delay of the individual TCP packets towards the end of the sequence.

16. The network node according to claim 13, wherein the TCP packets in the sequence are uplink TCP packets, and wherein the delaying unit is further configured to increase the delay of the individual TCP packets in the beginning of the sequence.

17. The network node according to claim 16, wherein the delaying unit is further configured to first increase the delay of the individual TCP packets in the beginning of the sequence, and then let the delay become steady towards the end of the sequence.

18. The network node according to claim 12, wherein the delaying unit is further configured to obtain the indication from an entity in control of the upcoming handover.

19. The network node according to claim 12, further comprising an obtaining unit configured to obtain an estimate of an expected round trip time for the TCP packet, and wherein the delaying unit is further configured to delay the TCP packet based on the expected round trip time.

20. The network node according to claim 12, wherein the expected round trip time is based on a deep packet inspection of a previously transferred TCP packet.

21. The network node according to claim 12, comprising an obtaining unit configured to obtain an estimate of an expected duration time of the handover outage, and wherein the delaying unit is further configured to delay the TCP packet based on the expected duration time of the handover outage.

22. The network node according to claim 12, comprising an obtaining unit configured to obtain a TCP parameter, which TCP parameter is specific to the user equipment, and/or to the server, and wherein the delaying unit is further configured to delay the TCP packet based on the TCP parameter.