A Theory of Window-Based Unicast Congestion Control

This work presents a comprehensive theoretical framework for window-based congestion control protocols that are designed to converge to fairness and efficiency. We first derive a sufficient condition for convergence to fairness. Using this, we show how fair window increase/decrease policies can be constructed from suitable pairs of monotonically non-decreasing functions. We show that well-studied protocols such as TCP, GAIMD and Binomial congestion control can be constructed using this method. Thus we provide a common framework for the analysis of such windowbased protocols. To validate our approach, we present experimental results for a new TCP-friendly protocol, LOG, designed using this framework with the objective of reconciling the smoothness requirement of streaming media-like applications with the need for a fast dynamic response to congestion.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2002
• Where: ICNP
• Authors: Nishanth R. Sastry, Simon S. Lam
• Keywords: Comprehensive Theoretical Framework, Computer Networks, Congestion Control, Congestion Control Protocols, ICNP 2002