| Merge of the Internet and wireless networks is becoming the developing trend to provide Internet services anytime, anywhere. This merge means the integration of two distinct network technologies, and success of the integration faces technical challenges to maintain the legacy Internet architecture and de facto protocols while at the same time embrace a variety of applications as well as hostile radio characteristics.; To tackle the challenges, this thesis evaluates the end-to-end performance of various Internet services and examines protocol compatibilities of Internet protocols with wireless network protocols in the wireless Internet access scenario.; This thesis presents the evidence that the traditional layered Internet protocol architecture does not preclude protocol interactions between layers. The implementation details and behaviors of higher layer protocols affect the lower layers, and vice versa. Furthermore, isolation of layers hinders QoS (Quality of Service) provisioning in wireless multimedia environments.; To resolve these problems, this thesis advocates the principle of interlayer protocol coordination for tuning protocols, and proposes an Interlayer Coordination Signaling Pipe (ICSP) framework to fulfill this task. The ICSP framework works in conjunction with the legacy Internet protocol architecture. It vertically crosses layers, exposing and transferring necessary information from one layer to the relevant layers for them to take appropriate optimization behaviors.; The interlayer coordination mechanisms are explored for three categories of Internet services, nonreal time, real-time block transfer, and real-time streaming services. For each category of services, system performance and interlayer protocol interactions are investigated, and coordination mechanisms are proposed to make the involved protocols work in concert with one another within the ICSP paradigm.; The investigation is mainly by computer simulation and supported by analysis when feasible. Out of diverse wireless networks, the protocols of the cdma2000 system are employed as a case study. Results in this thesis indicate that interlayer coordination can contribute to enhancing system performance, mitigating adverse interlayer protocol interactions, and improving resource management in wireless Internet access. |
