Wireless Internet Access over GSM and UMTS

The book provides a comprehensive investigation of the performance and problems of the TCP/IP protocol stack, when data is transmitted over GSM, GPRS and UMTS. It gives an introduction to the protocols used for Internet access today, and also the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). The basics of GSM,GPRS and UMTS are given, which are necessary for understanding the main topic, TCP performance over GSM, GPRS and UMTS. We describe at length the problems that TCP has when operating over a mobile radio link, and what has been proposed to remedy these problems. We derive the optimum TCP packet length for maximum data throughput on wireless networks, analytically and by simulation. Results on the throughput and various other parameters of TCP over mobile networks are given. This book gives valuable advice to network operators and application programmers to maximize data throughput, and which protocols, transmission modes, and coding schemes to use and which to avoid.