On the Design of Load Factor based Congestion Control Protocols for Next-Generation Networks

— Load factor based congestion control schemes have shown to enhance network performance, in terms of utilization, packet loss and delay. In these schemes, using more accurate representation of network load levels is likely to lead to a more efficient way of communicating congestion information to hosts. Increasing the amount of congestion information, however, may end up adversely affecting the performance of the network. This paper focuses on this trade-off and addresses two important and challenging questions: (i) How many congestion levels should be represented by the feedback signal to provide near-optimal performance? and (ii) What window adjustment policies must be in place to ensure robustness in the face of congestion and achieve efficient and fair bandwidth allocations in high Bandwidth-Delay Product (BDP) networks, while keeping low queues and negligible packet drop rates? Based on theoretical analysis and simulations, our results show that 3-bit feedback is sufficient ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: INFOCOM
• Authors: Ihsan A. Qazi, Taieb Znati
• Keywords: Bandwidth Allocation, Communications, Congestion Control, Congestion Information, INFOCOM 2008