article

Free access

The macroscopic behavior of the TCP congestion avoidance algorithm

Authors:

Matthew Mathis,

Jamshid Mahdavi, and

Teunis OttAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, Volume 27, Issue 3

Pages 67 - 82

https://doi.org/10.1145/263932.264023

Published: 01 July 1997 Publication History

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze a performance model for the TCP Congestion Avoidance algorithm. The model predicts the bandwidth of a sustained TCP connection subjected to light to moderate packet losses, such as loss caused by network congestion. It assumes that TCP avoids retransmission timeouts and always has sufficient receiver window and sender data. The model predicts the Congestion Avoidance performance of nearly all TCP implementations under restricted conditions and of TCP with Selective Acknowledgements over a much wider range of Internet conditions.We verify the model through both simulation and live Internet measurements. The simulations test several TCP implementations under a range of loss conditions and in environments with both drop-tail and RED queuing. The model is also compared to live Internet measurements using the TReno diagnostic and real TCP implementations.We also present several applications of the model to problems of bandwidth allocation in the Internet. We use the model to analyze networks with multiple congested gateways; this analysis shows strong agreement with prior work in this area. Finally, we present several important implications about the behavior of the Internet in the presence of high load from diverse user communities.

References

[1]

{B⁺97} Robert Braden et al. Recommendations on Queue Management and Congestion Avoidance in the Internet, March 1997. Internet draft draft-irtf-e2e-queue-mgt-00.txt (Work in progress).

Digital Library

[2]

{BOP94} Lawrence S. Brakmo, Sean W. O'Malley, and Larry L. Peterson. TCP Vegas: New Techniques for Congestion Detection and Avoidance. Proceedings of ACM SIGCOMM '94, August 1994.

Digital Library

[3]

{CH95} David D. Clark and Janey C. Hoe. Start-up Dynamics of TCP's Congestion Control and Avoidance Schemes. Technical report, Internet End-to-End Research Group, 1995. Presentation. Cited for acknowledgement purposes only.

[4]

{CJ89} D. Chiu and R. Jain. Analysis of the Increase/Decrease Algorithms for Congestion Avoidance in Computer Networks. Journal of Computer Networks and ISDN, 17(1): 1- 14, June 1989.

Digital Library

[5]

{Cla96} Dave Clark. Private communication, December 1996. Derivation of Bandwidth vs. Loss.

[6]

{DLY95} Peter B. Danzig, Zhen Liu, and Limim Yan. An Evaluation of TCP Vegas by Live Emulation. ACM SIGMetrics '95, 1995.

[7]

{FF96} Kevin Fall and Sally Floyd. Simulations-Based Comparisons of Tahoe, Reno and SACK TCP. Computer Communications Review, 26(3), July 1996.

Digital Library

[8]

{FJ92} Sally Floyd and Van Jacobson. On Traffic Phase Effects in Packet-Switched Gateways. Internetworking: Research and Experience , 3(3): 115-156, September 1992.

[9]

{FJ93} Sally Floyd and Van Jacobson. Random Early Detection Gateways for Congestion Avoidance. IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, August 1993.

Digital Library

[10]

{Flo91} Sally Floyd. Connections with Multiple Congested Gateways in Packet-Switched Networks, Part 1: One-way Traffic. Computer Communications Review, 21(5), October 1991.

Digital Library

[11]

{Flo95} Sally Floyd. TCP and Successive Fast Retransmits, February 1995. Obtain via ftp://ftp.ee.lbl.gov/papers/fastretrans.ps.

[12]

{Flo96} Sally Floyd. SACK TCP: The sender's congestion control algorithms for the implementation sackl in LBNL's ns simulator (viewgraphs). Technical report, TCP Large Windows Working Group of the IETF, March 1996. Obtain via ftp://ftp.ee.lbl.gov/talks/sacks.ps.

[13]

{Hoe95} Janey C. Hoe. Startup Dynamics of TCP's Congestion Control and Avoidance Schemes. Master's thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, June 1995.

[14]

{Hoe96} Janey C. Hoe. Improving the Start-up Behavior of a Congestion Control Scheme for TCP. Proceedings of ACM SIGCOMM '96, August 1996.

Digital Library

[15]

{Jac88a} Van Jacobson. Congestion Avoidance and Control. Proceedings of ACM SIGCOMM '88, August 1988.

Digital Library

[16]

{Jac88b} Van Jacobson. Traceroute Source Code, 1988. Obtain via ftp from ftp.ee.lbl.gov.

[17]

{Jac90} Van Jacobson. Modified TCP Congestion Avoidance Algorithm. Email to end2end- interest Mailing List, April 1990. Obtain via ftp://ftp.ee.lbl.gov/email/ vanj.90apr30.txt.

[18]

{JB88} Van Jacobson and Robert Braden. TCP Extensions for Long-Delay Paths, October 1988. Request for Comments 1072.

[19]

{JBB92} Van Jacobson, Robert Braden, and Dave Borman. TCP Extensions for High Performance, May 1992. Request for Comments 1323.

[20]

{LM94} T. V. Lakshman and U. Madhow. The Performance of TCP/IP for Networks with High Bandwidth-Delay Products and Random Loss. IFIP Transactions C-26, High Performance Networking, pages 135-150, 1994.

[21]

{Mat94a} Matthew Mathis. Private communication, November 1994. Derivation of Bandwidth vs. Loss.

[22]

{Mat94b} Matthew B. Mathis. Windowed Ping: An IP Layer Performance Diagnostic. Proceedings of INET'94/JENC5, 2, June 1994.

Digital Library

[23]

{Mat96} Matthew Mathis. Diagnosing Internet Congestion with a Transport Layer Performance Tool. Proceedings of INET'96, June 1996.

[24]

{Mat97} Matthew Mathis. Internet Performance and IP Provider Metrics information page. Obtain via http://www.psc.edu/~mathis/ ippm/, 1997.

[25]

{MF95} Steven McCanne and Sally Floyd. ns-LBL Network Simulator. Obtain via: http://www-nrg.ee.lbl.gov/ns/, 1995.

[26]

{MM96a} Matthew Mathis and Jamshid Mahdavi. Forward Acknowledgment: Refining TCP Congestion Control. Proceedings of ACM SIGCOMM '96, August 1996.

Digital Library

[27]

{MM96b} Matthew Mathis and Jamshid Mahdavi. TCP Rate-Halving with Bounding Parameters, October 1996. Obtain via: http://www.psc.edu/networking/papers/FACKnotes/current/.

[28]

{MMFR96} Matthew Mathis, Jamshid Mahdavi, Sally Floyd, and Allyn Romanow. TCP Selective Acknowledgement Options, October 1996. Request for Comments 2018.

[29]

{OKM96a} Teunis Ott, J. H. B. Kemperman, and Matt Mathis. The Stationary Behavior of Ideal TCP Congestion Avoidance. In progress, August 1996. Obtain via pub/tjo/TCPwindow.ps using anonymous ftp to ftp.bellcore.com, See also {OKM96b}., August 1996.

[30]

{OKM96b} Teunis J. Ott, J. H. B. Kemperman, and Matt Mathis. Window Size Behavior in TCP/IP with Constant Loss Probability, November 1996.

[31]

{Ost96} Shawn Ostermann. tcptrace TCP dump-file analysis tool. Obtain via http://jarok.cs.ohiou.edu/software/tcptrace/tcptrace.html, 1996.

[32]

{Pax97a} Vern Paxson. Automated Packet Trace Analysis of TCP Implementations. Proceedings of ACM SIGCOMM '97, August 1997.

Digital Library

[33]

{Pax97b} Vern Paxson. Measurements and Analysis of End-to-End Internet Dynamics. PhD thesis, University of California, Berkeley, April 1997.

Digital Library

[34]

{Ste94} W. Richard Stevens. TCP/IP Illustrated, volume 1. Addison-Wesley, Reading MA, 1994.

[35]

{Ste97} W. Richard Stevens. TCP Slow Start, Congestion Avoidance, Fast Retransmit, and Fast Recovery Algorithms, January 1997. Request for Comments 2001.

Cited By

Kfoury ECrichigno JBou-Harb E(2024)P4BS: Leveraging Passive Measurements From P4 Switches to Dynamically Modify a Router’s Buffer SizeIEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management10.1109/TNSM.2023.330633521:1(1082-1099)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TNSM.2023.3306335
Giuliano R(2024)From 5G-Advanced to 6G in 2030: New Services, 3GPP Advances, and Enabling TechnologiesIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2024.339636112(63238-63270)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3396361
Rodríguez-Pérez MHerrería-Alonso SCarlos López-Ardao JRodríguez-Rubio R(2024)End-to-end active queue management with Named-Data NetworkingJournal of Network and Computer Applications10.1016/j.jnca.2023.103772221:COnline publication date: 1-Jan-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.jnca.2023.103772
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

The macroscopic behavior of the TCP congestion avoidance algorithm

Recommendations

Delay-based congestion avoidance for TCP

The set of TCP congestion control algorithms associated with TCP/Reno (e.g., slow-start and congestion avoidance) have been crucial to ensuring the stability of the Internet. Algorithms such as TCP/NewReno (which has been deployed) and TCP/Vegas (which ...
Read More
Delay-based TCP congestion avoidance: A network calculus interpretation and performance improvements

In delay-based TCP congestion avoidance mechanisms, a source adjusts its window size to adapt to changes in network conditions as measured through changing queueing delays. Although network calculus (NC) has been used to study window flow control and ...
Read More
Rtt-based congestion avoidance for high-speed tcp internet connections
Read More

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review

ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review Volume 27, Issue 3

July 1997

115 pages

ISSN:0146-4833

DOI:10.1145/263932

Chairman:
Jon Crowcroft
Univ. College London, London, UK
,
Editor:
Martha Steenstrup
BBN Corp., Cambridge, MA

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 1997 Authors.

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 July 1997

Published in SIGCOMM-CCR Volume 27, Issue 3

Check for updates

Qualifiers

Article

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

1,127
Total Citations
View Citations
4,149
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)341
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)25

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Kfoury ECrichigno JBou-Harb E(2024)P4BS: Leveraging Passive Measurements From P4 Switches to Dynamically Modify a Router’s Buffer SizeIEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management10.1109/TNSM.2023.330633521:1(1082-1099)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TNSM.2023.3306335
Giuliano R(2024)From 5G-Advanced to 6G in 2030: New Services, 3GPP Advances, and Enabling TechnologiesIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2024.339636112(63238-63270)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3396361
Rodríguez-Pérez MHerrería-Alonso SCarlos López-Ardao JRodríguez-Rubio R(2024)End-to-end active queue management with Named-Data NetworkingJournal of Network and Computer Applications10.1016/j.jnca.2023.103772221:COnline publication date: 1-Jan-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.jnca.2023.103772
Teixeira DMeireles RAguiar A(2024)Wi-Fi throughput estimation and forecasting for vehicle-to-infrastructure communicationComputer Communications10.1016/j.comcom.2023.12.005214:C(223-233)Online publication date: 12-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.comcom.2023.12.005
Gessert FWingerath WRitter NGessert FWingerath WRitter N(2024)HTTP für global verteilte AnwendungenSchnelles und skalierbares Cloud-Datenmanagement10.1007/978-3-031-54388-3_3(35-60)Online publication date: 3-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54388-3_3
AYMAZ SCAVDAR T(2023)Efficient Routing by Detecting Elephant Flows with Deep Learning Method in SDNAdvances in Electrical and Computer Engineering10.4316/AECE.2023.0300723:3(57-66)Online publication date: 2023
https://doi.org/10.4316/AECE.2023.03007
Çavdar TAymaz Ş(2023)New approach to dynamic load balancing in software‐defined network‐based data centersETRI Journal10.4218/etrij.2021-047845:3(433-447)Online publication date: 10-Jan-2023
https://doi.org/10.4218/etrij.2021-0478
Teixeira DMeireles RAguiar A(2023)Wi-Fi Throughput Estimation for Vehicle-to-Network Communication in Heterogeneous Wireless Environments2023 18th Wireless On-Demand Network Systems and Services Conference (WONS)10.23919/WONS57325.2023.10061940(24-31)Online publication date: 30-Jan-2023
https://doi.org/10.23919/WONS57325.2023.10061940
Li YDeng GBai CYang JWang GZhang HBai JYuan HXu MWang S(2023)Demystifying the QoS and QoE of Edge-hosted Video Streaming Applications in the Wild with SNESetProceedings of the ACM on Management of Data10.1145/36267231:4(1-29)Online publication date: 12-Dec-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3626723
Su XZhou YCui LLiu J(2023)On Model Transmission Strategies in Federated Learning With Lossy CommunicationsIEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems10.1109/TPDS.2023.3240883(1-14)Online publication date: 2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/TPDS.2023.3240883
Show More Cited By

View Options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Get Access

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Issue’s Table of Contents