Theory and experiments show that as the per-flow product of bandwidth and latency increases, TCP becomes inefficient and prone to instability, regardless of the queuing scheme. This failing becomes increasingly important as the Internet evolves to incorporate very high-bandwidth optical links and more large-delay satellite links. To address this problem, we develop a novel approach to Internet congestion control that outperforms TCP in conventional environments, and remains efficient, fair, scalable, and stable as the bandwidth-delay product increases. This new eXplicit Control Protocol, XCP, generalizes the Explicit Congestion Notification proposal (ECN). In addition, XCP introduces the new concept of decoupling utilization control from fairness control. This allows a more flexible and analytically tractable protocol design and opens new avenues for service differentiation. Using a control theory framework, we model XCP and demonstrate it is stable and efficient regardless of the link capacity, the round trip delay, and the number of sources. Extensive packet-level simulations show that XCP outperforms TCP in both conventional and high bandwidth-delay environments. Further, XCP achieves fair bandwidth allocation, high utilization, small standing queue size, and near-zero packet drops, with both steady and highly varying traffic. Additionally, the new protocol does not maintain any per-flow state in routers and requires few CPU cycles per packet, which makes it implementable in high-speed routers.

Abstract — In this paper we use a previously developed nonlinear dynamic model of TCP to analyze and design Active Queue Management (AQM) control systems using RED. First, we linearize the interconnection of TCP and a bottlenecked queue and discuss its feedback properties in terms of network parameters such as link capacity, load and round-trip time. Using this model, we next design an AQM control system using the random early detection (RED) scheme by relating its free parameters such as the low-pass filter break point and loss probability profile to the network parameters. We present guidelines for designing linearly stable systems subject to network parameters like propogation delay and load level. Robustness to variations in system loads is a prime objective. We presentns simulations to support our analysis. I.

In this paper we study a previously developed linearized model of TCP and AQM. We use classical control system techniques to develop controllers well suited for the application. The controllers are shown to have better theoretical properties than the well known RED controller. We present guidelines for designing stable controllers subject to network parameters like load level, propogation delay etc. We also present simple implementation techniques which require a minimal change to RED implementations. The performance of the controllers are verified and compared with RED using ns simulations. The second of our designs, the Proportional Integral (PI) controller is shown to outperform RED significantly.

Virtual Queue-based marking schemes have been recently proposed for AQM (Active Queue Management) in Internet routers. We consider a particular scheme, which we call the Adaptive Virtual Queue (AVQ), and study its following properties: stability in the presence of feedback delays, its ability to maintain small queue lengths and its robustness in the presence of extremely short flows (the so-called web mice). Using a mathematical tool motivated by the earlier work of Hollot et al, we present a simple rule to design the parameters of the AVQ algorithm. We then compare its performance through simulation with several well-known AQM schemes such as RED, REM, PI controller and a non-adaptive virtual queue algorithm. With a view towards implementation, we show that AVQ can be implemented as a simple token bucket using only a few lines of code. 1

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Under the assumption that queueing delays will eventually become small relative to propagation delays, we derive stability results for a fluid flow model of end-to-end Internet congestion control. The theoretical results of the paper are intended to be decentralized and locally implemented: each end system needs knowledge only of its own roundtrip delay. Criteria for local stability and rate of convergence are completely characterized for a single resource, single user system. Stability criteria are also described for networks where aH users share the same roundtrip delay. Numerical experiments investigate extensions to more general networks. Through simulations, we are able to evaluate the relative importance of queueing delays and propagation delays on network stability. Finally, we suggest how these results may be used to design network resources.

This article reviews the current transmission control protocol (TCP) congestion control protocols and overviews recent advances that have brought analytical tools to this problem. We describe an optimization-based framework that provides an interpretation of various flow control mechanisms, in particular, the utility being optimized by the protocol’s equilibrium structure. We also look at the dynamics of TCP and employ linear models to exhibit stability limitations in the predominant TCP versions, despite certain built-in compensations for delay. Finally, we present a new protocol that overcomes these limitations and provides stability in a way that is scalable to arbitrary networks, link capacities, and delays.

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Theory and experiments show that as the per-flow product of bandwidth and latency increases, TCP becomes inefficient and prone to instability, regardless of the queuing scheme. This failing becomes increasingly important as the Internet evolves to incorporate very high-bandwidth optical links and more large-delay satellite links. To address

This paper discusses flow control in networks, in which sources control their rates based on feedback signals received from the network links, a feature present in current TCP protocols. We develop a congestion control system which is arbitrarily scalable, in the sense that its stability is maintained for arbitrary network topologies and arbitrary amounts of delay. Such a system can be implemented in a decentralized way with information currently available in networks plus a small amount of additional signaling.