Adaptive Receiver-Window Adjustment for Delay Reduction in LTE Networks

Abstract

The cellular network keeps the vast capacity of queue space at eNodeBs (base stations) to reduce the queue overflow during the burst in data traffic. However, this adversely affects the delay sensitive applications and user quality of experience. Recently, few researchers have focused on reducing the packet delay, but it has a negative impact on the utilization of network resource by the users. Further, it fails to maintain fairness among the users, when competing for a shared resource in coexistence with conventional TCP or UDP users. Therefore, in this paper, the adaptive receiver-window adjustment (ARWA) algorithm is proposed to efficiently utilize the network resources and ensure fairness among the users in resource competitive environment, which requires slight modification of TCP at both the sender and receiver. The proposed mechanism dynamically varies the receiver window size based on the data rate and delay information of the packets, to enhance the performance of the system. Based on extensive experiments, the results illustrate that the ARWA algorithm reduces the delay of TCP packet and increases fairness among the users. In addition to that, it enhances the packet delivery fraction (PDF) and maintains the throughput of the system. Moreover, it competes with other conventional TCP users for the shared network resources in a fair manner.