Performance studies of transport protocols over a wireless network environment, specifically the CentaurusComm protocol, are presented in this paper. It provides reliable, message-oriented data transmission, particularly for wireless environments. The protocol was developed for resource poor devices, exchanging small amounts of data, in low bandwidth networks. The performance studies show that the CentaurusComm protocol performs better than the traditional transmission control protocol (TCP) under certain conditions. The quantitative analysis is performed as a comparative study between TCP and CentaurusComm over cellular digital packet data (CDPD), wireless local area networks (WLANs), and Bluetooth.

The new protocol is a step in the right direction in dealing with the deficiencies of TCP in wireless environments. CentaurusComm is designed that it does not depend on any advanced operating features, which are typically not part of low power mobile systems. That makes it attractive in such environments. This is in contrast to TCP, which requires substantial operating system support.

The length of the paper is suitable for the subject. However, the paper contains only an overview of the CentaurusComm protocol, describing its main features and functions. A reference to a full protocol description would have been helpful. Since a major part of the paper deals with TCP, it should appear in the keyword list. The paper is easy to read and understand, and the experiments are well chosen for their purpose.