TCP behavior in sub packet regimes

Many network links in developing regions operate in the subpacket regime, an environment where the typical per-flow throughput is less than 1 packet per round-trip time. TCP and other common congestion control protocols break down in the sub-packet regime, resulting in severe unfairness, high packet loss rates, and flow silences due to repetitive timeouts. To understand TCP’s behavior in this regime, we propose a model particularly tailored to high packet loss-rates and relatively small congestion window sizes. We validate the model under a variety of network conditions. Categories and Subject Descriptors: C.2.2 [ComputerCommunication Networks]: Network Protocols. General Terms: Experimentation, Measurement, Performance.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2011
• Where: SIGMETRICS
• Authors: Jay Chen, Janardhan R. Iyengar, Lakshminarayanan Subramanian, Bryan Ford
• Keywords: Congestion Control, Congestion Window, Hardware, Measurement Performance, SIGMETRICS 2011