An Improved Link Model for Window Flow Control and Its Application to FAST TCP

This paper presents a link model which captures the queue dynamics in response to a change in a transmission control protocol (TCP) source's congestion window. By considering both self-clocking and the link integrator effect, the model generalizes existing models and is shown to be more accurate by both open loop and closed loop packet level simulations. It reduces to the known static link model when flows' round trip delays are identical, and approximates the standard integrator link model when there is significant cross traffic. We apply this model to the stability analysis of fast active queue management scalable TCP (FAST TCP) including its filter dynamics. Under this model, the FAST control law is linearly stable for a single bottleneck link with an arbitrary distribution of round trip delays. This result resolves the notable discrepancy between empirical observations and previous theoretical predictions. The analysis highlights the critical role of self-clocking in TCP stability, and the proof technique is new and less conservative than existing ones

Implementation of Provably Stable MaxNet

MaxNet TCP is a congestion control protocol that uses explicit multi-bit signalling from routers to achieve desirable properties such as high throughput and low latency. In this paper we present an implementation of an extended version of MaxNet. Our contributions are threefold. First, we extend the original algorithm to give both provable stability and rate fairness. Second, we introduce the MaxStart algorithm which allows new MaxNet connections to reach their fair rates quickly. Third, we provide a Linux kernel implementation of the protocol. With no overhead but 24-bit price signals, our implementation scales from 32 bit/s to 1 peta-bit/s with a 0.001% rate accuracy. We confirm the theoretically predicted properties by performing a range of experiments at speeds up to 1 Gbit/sec and delays up to 180 ms on the WAN-in-Lab facility

Queue Dynamics With Window Flow Control

This paper develops a new model that describes the queueing process of a communication network when data sources use window flow control. The model takes into account the burstiness in sub-round-trip time (RTT) timescales and the instantaneous rate differences of a flow at different links. It is generic and independent of actual source flow control algorithms. Basic properties of the model and its relation to existing work are discussed. In particular, for a general network with multiple links, it is demonstrated that spatial interaction of oscillations allows queue instability to occur even when all flows have the same RTTs and maintain constant windows. The model is used to study the dynamics of delay-based congestion control algorithms. It is found that the ratios of RTTs are critical to the stability of such systems, and previously unknown modes of instability are identified. Packet-level simulations and testbed measurements are provided to verify the model and its predictions

An Accurate Link Model and Its Application to Stability Analysis of FAST TCP

This paper presents a link model which captures the queue dynamics when congestion windows of TCP sources change. By considering both the self-clocking and the link integrator effects, the model is a generalization of existing models and is shown to be more accurate by both open loop and closed loop packet level simulations. It reduces to the known static link model when flows' round trip delays are similar, and approximates the standard integrator link model when the heterogeneity of round trip delays is significant. We then apply this model to the stability analysis of FAST TCP. It is shown that FAST TCP flows over a single link are always linearly stable regardless of delay distribution. This result resolves the notable discrepancy between empirical observations and previous theoretical predictions. The analysis highlights the critical role of self-clocking in TCP stability and the scalability of FAST TCP with respect to delay. The proof technique is new and less conservative than the existing ones

Queue Dynamics With Window Flow Control

This paper develops a new model that describes the queueing process of a communication network when data sources use window flow control. The model takes into account the burstiness in sub-round-trip time (RTT) timescales and the instantaneous rate differences of a flow at different links. It is generic and independent of actual source flow control algorithms. Basic properties of the model and its relation to existing work are discussed. In particular, for a general network with multiple links, it is demonstrated that spatial interaction of oscillations allows queue instability to occur even when all flows have the same RTTs and maintain constant windows. The model is used to study the dynamics of delay-based congestion control algorithms. It is found that the ratios of RTTs are critical to the stability of such systems, and previously unknown modes of instability are identified. Packet-level simulations and testbed measurements are provided to verify the model and its predictions

Dynamic modeling of Internet congestion control

The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) has successfully governed the Internet congestion control for two decades. It is by now, however, widely recognized that TCP has started to reach its limits and that new congestion control protocols are needed in the near future. This has spurred an intensive research effort searching for new congestion control designs that meet the demands of a future Internet scaled up in size, capacity and heterogeneity. In this thesis we derive network fluid flow models suitable for analysis and synthesis of window based congestion control protocols such as TCP. In window based congestion control the transmission rate of a sender is regulated by: (1) the adjustment of the so called window, which is an upper bound on the number of packets that are allowed to be sent before receiving an acknowledgment packet (ACK) from the receiver side, and (2) the rate of the returning ACKs. From a dynamical perspective, this constitutes a cascaded control structure with an outer and an inner loop. The first contribution of this thesis is a novel dynamical characterization and an analysis of the inner loop, generic to all window based schemes and formed by the interaction between the, so called, ACK-clocking mechanism and the network. The model is based on a fundamental integral equation relating the instantaneous flow rate and the window dynamics. It is verified in simulations and testbed experiments that the model accurately predicts dynamical behavior in terms of system stability, previously unknown oscillatory behavior and even fast phenomenon such as traffic burstiness patterns present in the system. It is demonstrated that this model is more accurate than many of the existing models in the literature. In the second contribution we consider the outer loop and present a detailed fluid model of a generic window based congestion control protocol using queuing delay as congestion notification. The model accounts for the relations between the actual packets in flight and the window size, the window control, the estimator dynamics as well as sampling effects that may be present in an end-to-end congestion control algorithm. The framework facilitates modeling of a quite large class of protocols. The third contribution is a closed loop analysis of the recently proposed congestion control protocol FAST TCP. This contribution also serves as a demonstration of the developed modeling framework. It is shown and verified in experiments that the delay configuration is critical to the stability of the system. A conclusion from the analysis is that the gain of the ACK-clocking mechanism dramatically increases with the delay heterogeneity for the case of an equal resource allocation policy. Since this strongly affects the stability properties of the system, this is alarming for all window based congestion control protocols striving towards proportional fairness. While these results are interesting as such, perhaps the most important contribution is the developed stability analysis technique.QC 2010081

Stability of window-based queue control with application to mobile terminal download

QC 2012022

Unbiased bandwidth estimation in communication protocols

Abstract: Heterogeneous communication networks with their variety of application demands, uncertain time-varying traffic load, and mixture of wired and wireless links pose several challenging problem in modeling and control. In this paper we focus on bandwidth estimation and elucidate why estimates based directly on bandwidth samples are biased. Previously, this phenomenon has been observed but not properly explained, it seems. Standard techniques for bandwidth estimation are based on measurements of inter-arrival times of packets as the bandwidth is proportional to the inverse of the interarrival time. Two main classes of bandwidth estimators are analyzed wrt how variations in the inter-arrival times affect the estimates. It is shown that linear time-invariant filtering of instantaneous bandwidth estimates does not change the bias. In contrast to this, smoothing the inter-arrival-time samples does give a bias reduction which depends on the properties of the smoothing filter. Hence, with such approach, noise attenuation can be traded against tracking ability wrt changes in the actual bandwidth. Copyright ©2005 IFA

Towards accurate congestion control models : validation and stability analysis

QC 2012021

Advanced techniques for digital video broadcasting

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