Improving path failure detection in SCTP using adaptive heartbeat time intervals

Abstract

Path failure detection in the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) is a key point to determine its viability as a transport protocol for mobile applications in wireless environments. Whereas most works have focused on how to optimize SCTP failure detection by modifying the retrans-mission algorithm inherited from TCP, we propose to change the SCTP heartbeat mechanism. In our proposal, the heart- beat time interval adapts to network conditions, so the more frequent the path failures are, the faster is the heartbeat pace. By simulation, we show that our approach detects inactive alternative destination addresses earlier, improving significantly the throughput of the SCTP connection.