LTCP: A Layering Technique for Improving the Performance of TCP in Highspeed Networks
draft-bhandarkar-ltcp-01

Abstract

This document proposes Layered TCP (LTCP for short), a simple layering technique for the congestion window response of TCP to make it more scalable in highspeed networks. LTCP is a two dimensional congestion control framework - the macroscopic control uses the concept of layering to quickly and efficiently make use of the available bandwidth whereas microscopic control extends the existing AIMD algorithms of TCP to determine the per-ack behavior. This document provides the general intuition and framework for the LTCP protocol modifications. Using a simple design, the effectiveness of using layering for improving the efficiency without sacrificing the convergence properties of TCP, is illustrated. The chosen design is evaluated using mathematical analysis, ns-2 based simulations and emulation on a Linux testbed. The results show that LTCP has promising convergence properties, is about an order of magnitude faster than TCP in utilizing high bandwidth links, employs few parameters and is easy to understand. The flexible framework opens a whole class of design options for improving the performance of TCP in highspeed networks. This document is an effort to solicit more experimentation and feedback from the broader networking community.

Authors

Sumitha Bhandarkar

(Note: The e-mail addresses provided for the authors of this Internet-Draft may no longer be valid.)