Effect of mode-switching on TCP short flows during D2D communication in LTE-A networks

Abstract

This paper investigates TCP performance in short-flows for device-to-device (D2D) communication in LTE-A networks. The target application is vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication for traffic safety in intelligent transportation systems (ITS). Through extensive simulation of real-life situations of ITS, our work highlights how even a very short-flow over TCP is severely affected in an LTE-A network, when two communicating end-points switch from D2D (or direct communication mode) to infrastructure mode due to their mobility. Our analysis further proves that the existing solutions to improve TCP performance for short flows over the conventional Internet fail to cope up with such mode-switching. Finally, we propose a quick graceful solution, based on the experimental results, to handle the unique problem, and discuss some more possible approaches for future research to circumvent the related challenges of V2V communication. © 2017 IEEE.