Performance Evaluation of TCP Data Transmission in 5G mmWave Networks

Fifth generation (5G) networks should use millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequencies to provide high data transmission rate. However, the performance of such networks significantly suffers from the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) used by various applications for data transmission. In this article, it is shown that the data download rate in 5G networks is much lower than the capacity of the mmWave link because of the Slow Start algorithm used in the TCP. We analyze various approaches to the problem and propose to use the xStream platform for adjusting TCP parameters. This approach significantly increases the download rate and does not require any changes to the software of client devices, which simplifies the implementation of the proposed approach in real systems.