Maximizing single connection TCP goodput by trading bandwidth for BER

All other conditions being equal, the end-to-end throughput of a TCP connection depends on the packet loss rate at the IP level. This is an issue when IP runs on a wireless link, where the bit error rate is variable and typically much higher than it is on fixed links. Especially on physical links where the bandwidth delay product is high, TCP performance is significantly impaired by apparently low values of the bit error rate. Generally speaking, on a wireless link bandwidth can be traded for information quality (error rate), the simplest method being to change the type or parameters of forward error correction. On this basis, we show a general method of taking advantage of this trade-off in order to maximize the throughput of a TCP connection.