QUIC                                                     J. Iyengar, Ed.
Internet-Draft                                             I. Swett, Ed.
Intended status: Standards Track                                  Google
Expires: May 18, 2018                                  November 14, 2017


               QUIC Loss Detection and Congestion Control
                      draft-ietf-quic-recovery-07

Abstract

   This document describes loss detection and congestion control
   mechanisms for QUIC.

Note to Readers

   Discussion of this draft takes place on the QUIC working group
   mailing list (quic@ietf.org), which is archived at
   https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/search/?email_list=quic [1].

   Working Group information can be found at https://github.com/quicwg
   [2]; source code and issues list for this draft can be found at
   https://github.com/quicwg/base-drafts/labels/recovery [3].

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on May 18, 2018.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2017 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents



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   (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     1.1.  Notational Conventions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  Design of the QUIC Transmission Machinery . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.1.  Relevant Differences Between QUIC and TCP . . . . . . . .   4
       2.1.1.  Monotonically Increasing Packet Numbers . . . . . . .   4
       2.1.2.  No Reneging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
       2.1.3.  More ACK Ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
       2.1.4.  Explicit Correction For Delayed Acks  . . . . . . . .   5
   3.  Loss Detection  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.1.  Computing the RTT estimate  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.2.  Ack-based Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
       3.2.1.  Fast Retransmit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
       3.2.2.  Early Retransmit  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     3.3.  Timer-based Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
       3.3.1.  Tail Loss Probe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
       3.3.2.  Retransmission Timeout  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
       3.3.3.  Handshake Timeout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     3.4.  Algorithm Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
       3.4.1.  Constants of interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
       3.4.2.  Variables of interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
       3.4.3.  Initialization  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
       3.4.4.  On Sending a Packet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
       3.4.5.  On Ack Receipt  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
       3.4.6.  On Packet Acknowledgment  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
       3.4.7.  Setting the Loss Detection Alarm  . . . . . . . . . .  15
       3.4.8.  On Alarm Firing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
       3.4.9.  Detecting Lost Packets  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
     3.5.  Discussion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
   4.  Congestion Control  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
     4.1.  Slow Start  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
     4.2.  Congestion Avoidance  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
     4.3.  Recovery Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
     4.4.  Tail Loss Probe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
     4.5.  Retransmission Timeout  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
     4.6.  Pacing Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
     4.7.  Pseudocode  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
       4.7.1.  Constants of interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
       4.7.2.  Variables of interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20



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       4.7.3.  Initialization  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
       4.7.4.  On Packet Sent  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
       4.7.5.  On Packet Acknowledgement . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
       4.7.6.  On Packets Lost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22
       4.7.7.  On Retransmission Timeout Verified  . . . . . . . . .  22
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22
   6.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  23
     6.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  23
     6.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
     6.3.  URIs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
   Appendix A.  Acknowledgments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
   Appendix B.  Change Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
     B.1.  Since draft-ietf-quic-recovery-06 . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
     B.2.  Since draft-ietf-quic-recovery-05 . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
     B.3.  Since draft-ietf-quic-recovery-04 . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
     B.4.  Since draft-ietf-quic-recovery-03 . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
     B.5.  Since draft-ietf-quic-recovery-02 . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
     B.6.  Since draft-ietf-quic-recovery-01 . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
     B.7.  Since draft-ietf-quic-recovery-00 . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
     B.8.  Since draft-iyengar-quic-loss-recovery-01 . . . . . . . .  25
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25

1.  Introduction

   QUIC is a new multiplexed and secure transport atop UDP.  QUIC builds
   on decades of transport and security experience, and implements
   mechanisms that make it attractive as a modern general-purpose
   transport.  The QUIC protocol is described in [QUIC-TRANSPORT].

   QUIC implements the spirit of known TCP loss recovery mechanisms,
   described in RFCs, various Internet-drafts, and also those prevalent
   in the Linux TCP implementation.  This document describes QUIC
   congestion control and loss recovery, and where applicable,
   attributes the TCP equivalent in RFCs, Internet-drafts, academic
   papers, and/or TCP implementations.

1.1.  Notational Conventions

   The words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "SHOULD", and "MAY" are used in this
   document.  It's not shouting; when they are capitalized, they have
   the special meaning defined in [RFC2119].

2.  Design of the QUIC Transmission Machinery

   All transmissions in QUIC are sent with a packet-level header, which
   includes a packet sequence number (referred to below as a packet
   number).  These packet numbers never repeat in the lifetime of a
   connection, and are monotonically increasing, which makes duplicate



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   detection trivial.  This fundamental design decision obviates the
   need for disambiguating between transmissions and retransmissions and
   eliminates significant complexity from QUIC's interpretation of TCP
   loss detection mechanisms.

   Every packet may contain several frames.  We outline the frames that
   are important to the loss detection and congestion control machinery
   below.

   o  Retransmittable frames are frames requiring reliable delivery.
      The most common are STREAM frames, which typically contain
      application data.

   o  Crypto handshake data is sent on stream 0, and uses the
      reliability machinery of QUIC underneath.

   o  ACK frames contain acknowledgment information.  QUIC uses a SACK-
      based scheme, where acks express up to 256 ranges.

2.1.  Relevant Differences Between QUIC and TCP

   Readers familiar with TCP's loss detection and congestion control
   will find algorithms here that parallel well-known TCP ones.
   Protocol differences between QUIC and TCP however contribute to
   algorithmic differences.  We briefly describe these protocol
   differences below.

2.1.1.  Monotonically Increasing Packet Numbers

   TCP conflates transmission sequence number at the sender with
   delivery sequence number at the receiver, which results in
   retransmissions of the same data carrying the same sequence number,
   and consequently to problems caused by "retransmission ambiguity".
   QUIC separates the two: QUIC uses a packet sequence number (referred
   to as the "packet number") for transmissions, and any data that is to
   be delivered to the receiving application(s) is sent in one or more
   streams, with stream offsets encoded within STREAM frames inside of
   packets that determine delivery order.

   QUIC's packet number is strictly increasing, and directly encodes
   transmission order.  A higher QUIC packet number signifies that the
   packet was sent later, and a lower QUIC packet number signifies that
   the packet was sent earlier.  When a packet containing frames is
   deemed lost, QUIC rebundles necessary frames in a new packet with a
   new packet number, removing ambiguity about which packet is
   acknowledged when an ACK is received.  Consequently, more accurate
   RTT measurements can be made, spurious retransmissions are trivially




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   detected, and mechanisms such as Fast Retransmit can be applied
   universally, based only on packet number.

   This design point significantly simplifies loss detection mechanisms
   for QUIC.  Most TCP mechanisms implicitly attempt to infer
   transmission ordering based on TCP sequence numbers - a non-trivial
   task, especially when TCP timestamps are not available.

2.1.2.  No Reneging

   QUIC ACKs contain information that is equivalent to TCP SACK, but
   QUIC does not allow any acked packet to be reneged, greatly
   simplifying implementations on both sides and reducing memory
   pressure on the sender.

2.1.3.  More ACK Ranges

   QUIC supports up to 256 ACK ranges, opposed to TCP's 3 SACK ranges.
   In high loss environments, this speeds recovery.

2.1.4.  Explicit Correction For Delayed Acks

   QUIC ACKs explicitly encode the delay incurred at the receiver
   between when a packet is received and when the corresponding ACK is
   sent.  This allows the receiver of the ACK to adjust for receiver
   delays, specifically the delayed ack timer, when estimating the path
   RTT.  This mechanism also allows a receiver to measure and report the
   delay from when a packet was received by the OS kernel, which is
   useful in receivers which may incur delays such as context-switch
   latency before a userspace QUIC receiver processes a received packet.

3.  Loss Detection

   QUIC senders use both ack information and timeouts to detect lost
   packets, and this section provides a description of these algorithms.
   Estimating the network round-trip time (RTT) is critical to these
   algorithms and is described first.

3.1.  Computing the RTT estimate

   (To be filled)

3.2.  Ack-based Detection

   Ack-based loss detection implements the spirit of TCP's Fast
   Retransmit [RFC5681], Early Retransmit [RFC5827], FACK, and SACK loss
   recovery [RFC6675].  This section provides an overview of how these
   algorithms are implemented in QUIC.



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   (TODO: Define unacknowledged packet, ackable packet, outstanding
   bytes.)

3.2.1.  Fast Retransmit

   An unacknowledged packet is marked as lost when an acknowledgment is
   received for a packet that was sent a threshold number of packets
   (kReorderingThreshold) after the unacknowledged packet.  Receipt of
   the ack indicates that a later packet was received, while
   kReorderingThreshold provides some tolerance for reordering of
   packets in the network.

   The RECOMMENDED initial value for kReorderingThreshold is 3.

   We derive this default from recommendations for TCP loss recovery
   [RFC5681] [RFC6675].  It is possible for networks to exhibit higher
   degrees of reordering, causing a sender to detect spurious losses.
   Detecting spurious losses leads to unnecessary retransmissions and
   may result in degraded performance due to the actions of the
   congestion controller upon detecting loss.  Implementers MAY use
   algorithms developed for TCP, such as TCP-NCR [RFC4653], to improve
   QUIC's reordering resilience, though care should be taken to map TCP
   specifics to QUIC correctly.  Similarly, using time-based loss
   detection to deal with reordering, such as in PR-TCP, should be more
   readily usable in QUIC.  Making QUIC deal with such networks is
   important open research, and implementers are encouraged to explore
   this space.

3.2.2.  Early Retransmit

   Unacknowledged packets close to the tail may have fewer than
   kReorderingThreshold number of ackable packets sent after them.  Loss
   of such packets cannot be detected via Fast Retransmit.  To enable
   ack-based loss detection of such packets, receipt of an
   acknowledgment for the last outstanding ackable packet triggers the
   Early Retransmit process, as follows.

   If there are unacknowledged ackable packets still pending, they ought
   to be marked as lost.  To compensate for the reduced reordering
   resilience, the sender SHOULD set an alarm for a small period of
   time.  If the unacknowledged ackable packets are not acknowledged
   during this time, then these packets MUST be marked as lost.

   An endpoint SHOULD set the alarm such that a packet is marked as lost
   no earlier than 1.25 * max(SRTT, latest_RTT) since when it was sent.

   Using max(SRTT, latest_RTT) protects from the two following cases:




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   o  the latest RTT sample is lower than the SRTT, perhaps due to
      reordering where packet whose ack triggered the Early Retransit
      process encountered a shorter path;

   o  the latest RTT sample is higher than the SRTT, perhaps due to a
      sustained increase in the actual RTT, but the smoothed SRTT has
      not yet caught up.

   The 1.25 multiplier increases reordering resilience.  Implementers
   MAY experiment with using other multipliers, bearing in mind that a
   lower multiplier reduces reordering resilience and increases spurious
   retransmissions, and a higher multipler increases loss recovery
   delay.

   This mechanism is based on Early Retransmit for TCP [RFC5827].
   However, [RFC5827] does not include the alarm described above.  Early
   Retransmit is prone to spurious retransmissions due to its reduced
   reordering resilence without the alarm.  This observation led Linux
   TCP implementers to implement an alarm for TCP as well, and this
   document incorporates this advancement.

3.3.  Timer-based Detection

   Timer-based loss detection implements the spirit of TCP's Tail Loss
   Probe and Retransmission Timeout mechanisms.

3.3.1.  Tail Loss Probe

   The algorithm described in this section is an adaptation of the Tail
   Loss Probe algorithm proposed for TCP [TLP].

   A packet sent at the tail is particularly vulnerable to slow loss
   detection, since acks of subsequent packets are needed to trigger
   ack-based detection.  To ameliorate this weakness of tail packets,
   the sender schedules an alarm when the last ackable packet before
   quiescence is transmitted.  When this alarm fires, a Tail Loss Probe
   (TLP) packet is sent to evoke an acknowledgement from the receiver.

   The alarm duration, or Probe Timeout (PTO), is set based on the
   following conditions:

   o  If there is exactly one unacknowledged packet, PTO SHOULD be
      scheduled for max(2_SRTT, 1.5_SRTT+kDelayedAckTimeout)

   o  If there are more than one unacknowledged packets, PTO SHOULD be
      scheduled for max(2*SRTT, 10ms).





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   o  If RTO is earlier, schedule a TLP alarm in its place.  That is,
      PTO SHOULD be scheduled for min(RTO, PTO).

   kDelayedAckTimeout is the expected delayed ACK timer.  When there is
   exactly one unacknowledged packet, the alarm duration includes time
   for an acknowledgment to be received, and additionally, a
   kDelayedAckTimeout period to compensate for the delayed
   acknowledgment timer at the receiver.

   The RECOMMENDED value for kDelayedAckTimeout is 25ms.

   (TODO: Add negotiability of delayed ack timeout.)

   A PTO value of at least 2_SRTT ensures that the ACK is overdue.
   Using a PTO of exactly 1_SRTT may generate spurious probes, and
   2*SRTT is simply the next integral value of RTT.

   (TODO: These values of 2 and 1.5 are a bit arbitrary.  Reconsider
   these.)

   If the Retransmission Timeout (RTO, Section 3.3.2) period is smaller
   than the computed PTO, then a PTO is scheduled for the smaller RTO
   period.

   To reduce latency, it is RECOMMENDED that the sender set and allow
   the TLP alarm to fire twice before setting an RTO alarm.  In other
   words, when the TLP alarm fires the first time, a TLP packet is sent,
   and it is RECOMMENDED that the TLP alarm be scheduled for a second
   time.  When the TLP alarm fires the second time, a second TLP packet
   is sent, and an RTO alarm SHOULD be scheduled Section 3.3.2.

   A TLP packet SHOULD carry new data when possible.  If new data is
   unavailable or new data cannot be sent due to flow control, a TLP
   packet MAY retransmit unacknowledged data to potentially reduce
   recovery time.  Since a TLP alarm is used to send a probe into the
   network prior to establishing any packet loss, prior unacknowledged
   packets SHOULD NOT be marked as lost when a TLP alarm fires.

   A TLP packet MUST NOT be blocked by the sender's congestion
   controller.  The sender MUST however count these bytes as additional
   bytes in flight, since a TLP adds network load without establishing
   packet loss.

   A sender will commonly not know that a packet being sent is a tail
   packet.  Consequently, a sender may have to arm or adjust the TLP
   alarm on every sent ackable packet.





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3.3.2.  Retransmission Timeout

   A Retransmission Timeout (RTO) alarm is the final backstop for loss
   detection.  The algorithm used in QUIC is based on the RTO algorithm
   for TCP [RFC5681] and is additionally resilient to spurious RTO
   events [RFC5682].

   When the last TLP packet is sent, an alarm is scheduled for the RTO
   period.  When this alarm fires, the sender sends two packets, to
   evoke acknowledgements from the receiver, and restarts the RTO alarm.

   Similar to TCP [RFC6298], the RTO period is set based on the
   following conditions:

   o  When the final TLP packet is sent, the RTO period is set to
      max(SRTT + 4*RTTVAR, minRTO)

   o  When an RTO alarm fires, the RTO period is doubled.

   The sender typically has incurred a high latency penalty by the time
   an RTO alarm fires, and this penalty increases exponentially in
   subsequent consecutive RTO events.  Sending a single packet on an RTO
   event therefore makes the connection very sensitive to single packet
   loss.  Sending two packets instead of one significantly increases
   resilience to packet drop in both directions, thus reducing the
   probability of consecutive RTO events.

   QUIC's RTO algorithm differs from TCP in that the firing of an RTO
   alarm is not considered a strong enough signal of packet loss.  An
   RTO alarm fires only when there's a prolonged period of network
   silence, which could be caused by a change in the underlying network
   RTT.

   When an acknowledgment is received for a packet sent on an RTO event,
   any unacknowledged packets with lower packet numbers than those
   acknowledged MUST be marked as lost.

   A packet sent when an RTO alarm fires MAY carry new data if available
   or unacknowledged data to potentially reduce recovery time.  Since
   this packet is sent as a probe into the network prior to establishing
   any packet loss, prior unacknowledged packets SHOULD NOT be marked as
   lost.

   A packet sent on an RTO alarm MUST NOT be blocked by the sender's
   congestion controller.  A sender MUST however count these bytes as
   additional bytes in flight, since this packet adds network load
   without establishing packet loss.




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3.3.3.  Handshake Timeout

   Handshake packets, which contain STREAM frames for stream 0, are
   critical to QUIC transport and crypto negotiation, so a separate
   alarm is used for them.

   The handshake timeout SHOULD be set to twice the initial RTT.

   There are no prior RTT samples within this connection.  However, this
   may be a resumed connection over the same network, in which case, a
   client SHOULD use the previous connection's final smoothed RTT value
   as the resumed connection's initial RTT.

   If no previous RTT is available, or if the network changes, the
   initial RTT SHOULD be set to 100ms.

   When the first handshake packet is sent, the sender SHOULD set an
   alarm for the handshake timeout period.

   When the alarm fires, the sender MUST retransmit all unacknowledged
   handshake frames.  The sender SHOULD double the handshake timeout and
   set an alarm for this period.

   On each consecutive firing of the handshake alarm, the sender SHOULD
   double the handshake timeout period.

   When an acknowledgement is received for a handshake packet, the new
   RTT is computed and the alarm SHOULD be set for twice the newly
   computed smoothed RTT.

   Handshake frames may be cancelled by handshake state transitions.  In
   particular, all non-protected frames SHOULD no longer be transmitted
   once packet protection is available.

   (TODO: Work this section some more.  Add text on client vs. server,
   and on stateless retry.)

3.4.  Algorithm Details

3.4.1.  Constants of interest

   Constants used in loss recovery are based on a combination of RFCs,
   papers, and common practice.  Some may need to be changed or
   negotiated in order to better suit a variety of environments.

   kMaxTLPs (default 2):  Maximum number of tail loss probes before an
      RTO fires.




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   kReorderingThreshold (default 3):  Maximum reordering in packet
      number space before FACK style loss detection considers a packet
      lost.

   kTimeReorderingFraction (default 1/8):  Maximum reordering in time
      space before time based loss detection considers a packet lost.
      In fraction of an RTT.

   kMinTLPTimeout (default 10ms):  Minimum time in the future a tail
      loss probe alarm may be set for.

   kMinRTOTimeout (default 200ms):  Minimum time in the future an RTO
      alarm may be set for.

   kDelayedAckTimeout (default 25ms):  The length of the peer's delayed
      ack timer.

   kDefaultInitialRtt (default 100ms):  The default RTT used before an
      RTT sample is taken.

3.4.2.  Variables of interest

   Variables required to implement the congestion control mechanisms are
   described in this section.

   loss_detection_alarm:  Multi-modal alarm used for loss detection.

   handshake_count:  The number of times the handshake packets have been
      retransmitted without receiving an ack.

   tlp_count:  The number of times a tail loss probe has been sent
      without receiving an ack.

   rto_count:  The number of times an rto has been sent without
      receiving an ack.

   largest_sent_before_rto:  The last packet number sent prior to the
      first retransmission timeout.

   time_of_last_sent_packet:  The time the most recent packet was sent.

   largest_sent_packet:  The packet number of the most recently sent
      packet.

   largest_acked_packet:  The largest packet number acknowledged in an
      ack frame.





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   latest_rtt:  The most recent RTT measurement made when receiving an
      ack for a previously unacked packet.

   smoothed_rtt:  The smoothed RTT of the connection, computed as
      described in [RFC6298]

   rttvar:  The RTT variance, computed as described in [RFC6298]

   reordering_threshold:  The largest delta between the largest acked
      retransmittable packet and a packet containing retransmittable
      frames before it's declared lost.

   time_reordering_fraction:  The reordering window as a fraction of
      max(smoothed_rtt, latest_rtt).

   loss_time:  The time at which the next packet will be considered lost
      based on early transmit or exceeding the reordering window in
      time.

   sent_packets:  An association of packet numbers to information about
      them, including a number field indicating the packet number, a
      time field indicating the time a packet was sent, and a bytes
      field indicating the packet's size.  sent_packets is ordered by
      packet number, and packets remain in sent_packets until
      acknowledged or lost.

3.4.3.  Initialization

   At the beginning of the connection, initialize the loss detection
   variables as follows:

      loss_detection_alarm.reset()
      handshake_count = 0
      tlp_count = 0
      rto_count = 0
      if (UsingTimeLossDetection())
        reordering_threshold = infinite
        time_reordering_fraction = kTimeReorderingFraction
      else:
        reordering_threshold = kReorderingThreshold
        time_reordering_fraction = infinite
      loss_time = 0
      smoothed_rtt = 0
      rttvar = 0
      largest_sent_before_rto = 0
      time_of_last_sent_packet = 0
      largest_sent_packet = 0




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3.4.4.  On Sending a Packet

   After any packet is sent, be it a new transmission or a rebundled
   transmission, the following OnPacketSent function is called.  The
   parameters to OnPacketSent are as follows:

   o  packet_number: The packet number of the sent packet.

   o  is_ack_only: A boolean that indicates whether a packet only
      contains an ACK frame.  If true, it is still expected an ack will
      be received for this packet, but it is not congestion controlled.

   o  sent_bytes: The number of bytes sent in the packet, not including
      UDP or IP overhead, but including QUIC framing overhead.

   Pseudocode for OnPacketSent follows:

    OnPacketSent(packet_number, is_ack_only, sent_bytes):
      time_of_last_sent_packet = now
      largest_sent_packet = packet_number
      sent_packets[packet_number].packet_number = packet_number
      sent_packets[packet_number].time = now
      if !is_ack_only:
        OnPacketSentCC(sent_bytes)
        sent_packets[packet_number].bytes = sent_bytes
        SetLossDetectionAlarm()

3.4.5.  On Ack Receipt

   When an ack is received, it may acknowledge 0 or more packets.

   Pseudocode for OnAckReceived and UpdateRtt follow:



















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      OnAckReceived(ack):
        largest_acked_packet = ack.largest_acked
        // If the largest acked is newly acked, update the RTT.
        if (sent_packets[ack.largest_acked]):
          latest_rtt = now - sent_packets[ack.largest_acked].time
          if (latest_rtt > ack.ack_delay):
            latest_rtt -= ack.delay
          UpdateRtt(latest_rtt)
        // Find all newly acked packets.
        for acked_packet in DetermineNewlyAckedPackets():
          OnPacketAcked(acked_packet.packet_number)

        DetectLostPackets(ack.largest_acked_packet)
        SetLossDetectionAlarm()


      UpdateRtt(latest_rtt):
        // Based on {{RFC6298}}.
        if (smoothed_rtt == 0):
          smoothed_rtt = latest_rtt
          rttvar = latest_rtt / 2
        else:
          rttvar = 3/4 * rttvar + 1/4 * abs(smoothed_rtt - latest_rtt)
          smoothed_rtt = 7/8 * smoothed_rtt + 1/8 * latest_rtt

3.4.6.  On Packet Acknowledgment

   When a packet is acked for the first time, the following
   OnPacketAcked function is called.  Note that a single ACK frame may
   newly acknowledge several packets.  OnPacketAcked must be called once
   for each of these newly acked packets.

   OnPacketAcked takes one parameter, acked_packet, which is the packet
   number of the newly acked packet, and returns a list of packet
   numbers that are detected as lost.

   If this is the first acknowledgement following RTO, check if the
   smallest newly acknowledged packet is one sent by the RTO, and if so,
   inform congestion control of a verified RTO, similar to F-RTO
   [RFC5682]

   Pseudocode for OnPacketAcked follows:









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      OnPacketAcked(acked_packet_number):
        OnPacketAckedCC(acked_packet_number)
        // If a packet sent prior to RTO was acked, then the RTO
        // was spurious.  Otherwise, inform congestion control.
        if (rto_count > 0 &&
            acked_packet_number > largest_sent_before_rto)
          OnRetransmissionTimeoutVerified()
        handshake_count = 0
        tlp_count = 0
        rto_count = 0
        sent_packets.remove(acked_packet_number)

3.4.7.  Setting the Loss Detection Alarm

   QUIC loss detection uses a single alarm for all timer-based loss
   detection.  The duration of the alarm is based on the alarm's mode,
   which is set in the packet and timer events further below.  The
   function SetLossDetectionAlarm defined below shows how the single
   timer is set based on the alarm mode.

3.4.7.1.  Handshake Packets

   The initial flight has no prior RTT sample.  A client SHOULD remember
   the previous RTT it observed when resumption is attempted and use
   that for an initial RTT value.  If no previous RTT is available, the
   initial RTT defaults to 100ms.

   Endpoints MUST retransmit handshake frames if not acknowledged within
   a time limit.  This time limit will start as the largest of twice the
   RTT value and MinTLPTimeout.  Each consecutive handshake
   retransmission doubles the time limit, until an acknowledgement is
   received.

   Handshake frames may be cancelled by handshake state transitions.  In
   particular, all non-protected frames SHOULD be no longer be
   transmitted once packet protection is available.

   When stateless rejects are in use, the connection is considered
   immediately closed once a reject is sent, so no timer is set to
   retransmit the reject.

   Version negotiation packets are always stateless, and MUST be sent
   once per handshake packet that uses an unsupported QUIC version, and
   MAY be sent in response to 0RTT packets.







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3.4.7.2.  Tail Loss Probe and Retransmission Timeout

   Tail loss probes [LOSS-PROBE] and retransmission timeouts [RFC6298]
   are an alarm based mechanism to recover from cases when there are
   outstanding retransmittable packets, but an acknowledgement has not
   been received in a timely manner.

3.4.7.3.  Early Retransmit

   Early retransmit [RFC5827] is implemented with a 1/4 RTT timer.  It
   is part of QUIC's time based loss detection, but is always enabled,
   even when only packet reordering loss detection is enabled.

3.4.7.4.  Pseudocode

   Pseudocode for SetLossDetectionAlarm follows:

    SetLossDetectionAlarm():
       if (retransmittable packets are not outstanding):
         loss_detection_alarm.cancel()
         return

       if (handshake packets are outstanding):
         // Handshake retransmission alarm.
         if (smoothed_rtt == 0):
           alarm_duration = 2 * kDefaultInitialRtt
         else:
           alarm_duration = 2 * smoothed_rtt
         alarm_duration = max(alarm_duration, kMinTLPTimeout)
         alarm_duration = alarm_duration * (2 ^ handshake_count)
       else if (loss_time != 0):
         // Early retransmit timer or time loss detection.
         alarm_duration = loss_time - now
       else if (tlp_count < kMaxTLPs):
         // Tail Loss Probe
         if (retransmittable_packets_outstanding == 1):
           alarm_duration = 1.5 * smoothed_rtt + kDelayedAckTimeout
         else:
           alarm_duration = kMinTLPTimeout
         alarm_duration = max(alarm_duration, 2 * smoothed_rtt)
       else:
         // RTO alarm
         alarm_duration = smoothed_rtt + 4 * rttvar
         alarm_duration = max(alarm_duration, kMinRTOTimeout)
         alarm_duration = alarm_duration * (2 ^ rto_count)

       loss_detection_alarm.set(now + alarm_duration)




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3.4.8.  On Alarm Firing

   QUIC uses one loss recovery alarm, which when set, can be in one of
   several modes.  When the alarm fires, the mode determines the action
   to be performed.

   Pseudocode for OnLossDetectionAlarm follows:

      OnLossDetectionAlarm():
        if (handshake packets are outstanding):
          // Handshake retransmission alarm.
          RetransmitAllHandshakePackets()
          handshake_count++
        else if (loss_time != 0):
          // Early retransmit or Time Loss Detection
          DetectLostPackets(largest_acked_packet)
        else if (tlp_count < kMaxTLPs):
          // Tail Loss Probe.
          SendOnePacket()
          tlp_count++
        else:
          // RTO.
          if (rto_count == 0)
            largest_sent_before_rto = largest_sent_packet
          SendTwoPackets()
          rto_count++

        SetLossDetectionAlarm()

3.4.9.  Detecting Lost Packets

   Packets in QUIC are only considered lost once a larger packet number
   is acknowledged.  DetectLostPackets is called every time an ack is
   received.  If the loss detection alarm fires and the loss_time is
   set, the previous largest acked packet is supplied.

3.4.9.1.  Handshake Packets

   The receiver MUST close the connection with an error of type
   OPTIMISTIC_ACK when receiving an unprotected packet that acks
   protected packets.  The receiver MUST trust protected acks for
   unprotected packets, however.  Aside from this, loss detection for
   handshake packets when an ack is processed is identical to other
   packets.







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3.4.9.2.  Pseudocode

   DetectLostPackets takes one parameter, acked, which is the largest
   acked packet.

   Pseudocode for DetectLostPackets follows:

    DetectLostPackets(largest_acked):
      loss_time = 0
      lost_packets = {}
      delay_until_lost = infinite
      if (time_reordering_fraction != infinite):
        delay_until_lost =
          (1 + time_reordering_fraction) * max(latest_rtt, smoothed_rtt)
      else if (largest_acked.packet_number == largest_sent_packet):
        // Early retransmit alarm.
        delay_until_lost = 9/8 * max(latest_rtt, smoothed_rtt)
      foreach (unacked < largest_acked.packet_number):
        time_since_sent = now() - unacked.time_sent
        delta = largest_acked.packet_number - unacked.packet_number
        if (time_since_sent > delay_until_lost):
          lost_packets.insert(unacked)
        else if (delta > reordering_threshold)
          lost_packets.insert(unacked)
        else if (loss_time == 0 && delay_until_lost != infinite):
          loss_time = now() + delay_until_lost - time_since_sent

      // Inform the congestion controller of lost packets and
      // lets it decide whether to retransmit immediately.
      if (!lost_packets.empty())
        OnPacketsLost(lost_packets)
        foreach (packet in lost_packets)
          sent_packets.remove(packet.packet_number)

3.5.  Discussion

   The majority of constants were derived from best common practices
   among widely deployed TCP implementations on the internet.
   Exceptions follow.

   A shorter delayed ack time of 25ms was chosen because longer delayed
   acks can delay loss recovery and for the small number of connections
   where less than packet per 25ms is delivered, acking every packet is
   beneficial to congestion control and loss recovery.

   The default initial RTT of 100ms was chosen because it is slightly
   higher than both the median and mean min_rtt typically observed on
   the public internet.



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4.  Congestion Control

   QUIC's congestion control is based on TCP NewReno[RFC6582] congestion
   control to determine the congestion window and pacing rate.  QUIC
   congestion control is specified in bytes due to finer control and the
   ease of appropriate byte counting[RFC3465].

4.1.  Slow Start

   QUIC begins every connection in slow start and exits slow start upon
   loss.  QUIC re-enters slow start after a retransmission timeout.
   While in slow start, QUIC increases the congestion window by the
   number of acknowledged bytes when each ack is processed.

4.2.  Congestion Avoidance

   Slow start exits to congestion avoidance.  Congestion avoidance in
   NewReno uses an additive increase multiplicative decrease (AIMD)
   approach that increases the congestion window by one MSS of bytes per
   congestion window acknowledged.  When a loss is detected, NewReno
   halves the congestion window and sets the slow start threshold to the
   new congestion window.

4.3.  Recovery Period

   Recovery is a period of time beginning with detection of a lost
   packet.  Because QUIC retransmits stream data and control frames, not
   packets, it defines the end of recovery as a packet sent after the
   start of recovery being acknowledged.  This is slightly different
   from TCP's definition of recovery ending when the lost packet that
   started recovery is acknowledged.

   During recovery, the congestion window is not increased or decreased.
   As such, multiple lost packets only decrease the congestion window
   once as long as they're lost before exiting recovery.  This causes
   QUIC to decrease the congestion window multiple times if
   retransmisions are lost, but limits the reduction to once per round
   trip.

4.4.  Tail Loss Probe

   If recovery sends a tail loss probe, no change is made to the
   congestion window or pacing rate.  Acknowledgement or loss of tail
   loss probes are treated like any other packet.







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4.5.  Retransmission Timeout

   When retransmissions are sent due to a retransmission timeout alarm,
   no change is made to the congestion window or pacing rate until the
   next acknowledgement arrives.  When an ack arrives, if packets prior
   to the first retransmission timeout are acknowledged, then the
   congestion window remains the same.  If no packets prior to the first
   retransmission timeout are acknowledged, the retransmission timeout
   has been validated and the congestion window must be reduced to the
   minimum congestion window and slow start is begun.

4.6.  Pacing Rate

   The pacing rate is a function of the mode, the congestion window, and
   the smoothed rtt.  Specifically, the pacing rate is 2 times the
   congestion window divided by the smoothed RTT during slow start and
   1.25 times the congestion window divided by the smoothed RTT during
   congestion avoidance.  In order to fairly compete with flows that are
   not pacing, it is recommended to not pace the first 10 sent packets
   when exiting quiescence.

4.7.  Pseudocode

4.7.1.  Constants of interest

   Constants used in congestion control are based on a combination of
   RFCs, papers, and common practice.  Some may need to be changed or
   negotiated in order to better suit a variety of environments.

   kDefaultMss (default 1460 bytes):  The default max packet size used
      for calculating default and minimum congestion windows.

   kInitialWindow (default 10 * kDefaultMss):  Default limit on the
      amount of outstanding data in bytes.

   kMinimumWindow (default 2 * kDefaultMss):  Default minimum congestion
      window.

   kLossReductionFactor (default 0.5):  Reduction in congestion window
      when a new loss event is detected.

4.7.2.  Variables of interest

   Variables required to implement the congestion control mechanisms are
   described in this section.

   bytes_in_flight:  The sum of the size in bytes of all sent packets
      that contain at least one retransmittable or PADDING frame, and



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      have not been acked or declared lost.  The size does not include
      IP or UDP overhead.  Packets only containing ack frames do not
      count towards byte_in_flight to ensure congestion control does not
      impede congestion feedback.

   congestion_window:  Maximum number of bytes in flight that may be
      sent.

   end_of_recovery:  The largest packet number sent when QUIC detects a
      loss.  When a larger packet is acknowledged, QUIC exits recovery.

   ssthresh  Slow start threshold in bytes.  When the congestion window
      is below ssthresh, the mode is slow start and the window grows by
      the number of bytes acknowledged.

4.7.3.  Initialization

   At the beginning of the connection, initialize the congestion control
   variables as follows:

      congestion_window = kInitialWindow
      bytes_in_flight = 0
      end_of_recovery = 0
      ssthresh = infinite

4.7.4.  On Packet Sent

   Whenever a packet is sent, and it contains non-ACK frames, the packet
   increases bytes_in_flight.

      OnPacketSentCC(bytes_sent):
        bytes_in_flight += bytes_sent

4.7.5.  On Packet Acknowledgement

   Invoked from loss detection's OnPacketAcked and is supplied with
   acked_packet from sent_packets.














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      OnPacketAckedCC(acked_packet):
        // Remove from bytes_in_flight.
        bytes_in_flight -= acked_packet.bytes
        if (acked_packet.packet_number < end_of_recovery):
          // Do not increase congestion window in recovery period.
          return
        if (congestion_window < ssthresh):
          // Slow start.
          congestion_window += acked_packets.bytes
        else:
          // Congestion avoidance.
          congestion_window +=
            kDefaultMss * acked_packets.bytes / congestion_window

4.7.6.  On Packets Lost

   Invoked by loss detection from DetectLostPackets when new packets are
   detected lost.

      OnPacketsLost(lost_packets):
        // Remove lost packets from bytes_in_flight.
        for (lost_packet : lost_packets):
          bytes_in_flight -= lost_packet.bytes
        largest_lost_packet = lost_packets.last()
        // Start a new recovery epoch if the lost packet is larger
        // than the end of the previous recovery epoch.
        if (end_of_recovery < largest_lost_packet.packet_number):
          end_of_recovery = largest_sent_packet
          congestion_window *= kLossReductionFactor
          congestion_window = max(congestion_window, kMinimumWindow)
          ssthresh = congestion_window

4.7.7.  On Retransmission Timeout Verified

   QUIC decreases the congestion window to the minimum value once the
   retransmission timeout has been verified.

      OnRetransmissionTimeoutVerified()
        congestion_window = kMinimumWindow

5.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no IANA actions.  Yet.








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6.  References

6.1.  Normative References

   [QUIC-TRANSPORT]
              Iyengar, J., Ed. and M. Thomson, Ed., "QUIC: A UDP-Based
              Multiplexed and Secure Transport", draft-ietf-quic-
              transport-07 (work in progress), November 2017.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC4653]  Bhandarkar, S., Reddy, A., Allman, M., and E. Blanton,
              "Improving the Robustness of TCP to Non-Congestion
              Events", RFC 4653, DOI 10.17487/RFC4653, August 2006,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4653>.

   [RFC5681]  Allman, M., Paxson, V., and E. Blanton, "TCP Congestion
              Control", RFC 5681, DOI 10.17487/RFC5681, September 2009,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5681>.

   [RFC5682]  Sarolahti, P., Kojo, M., Yamamoto, K., and M. Hata,
              "Forward RTO-Recovery (F-RTO): An Algorithm for Detecting
              Spurious Retransmission Timeouts with TCP", RFC 5682,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5682, September 2009,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5682>.

   [RFC5827]  Allman, M., Avrachenkov, K., Ayesta, U., Blanton, J., and
              P. Hurtig, "Early Retransmit for TCP and Stream Control
              Transmission Protocol (SCTP)", RFC 5827,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5827, May 2010,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5827>.

   [RFC6298]  Paxson, V., Allman, M., Chu, J., and M. Sargent,
              "Computing TCP's Retransmission Timer", RFC 6298,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6298, June 2011,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6298>.

   [RFC6675]  Blanton, E., Allman, M., Wang, L., Jarvinen, I., Kojo, M.,
              and Y. Nishida, "A Conservative Loss Recovery Algorithm
              Based on Selective Acknowledgment (SACK) for TCP",
              RFC 6675, DOI 10.17487/RFC6675, August 2012,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6675>.






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6.2.  Informative References

   [LOSS-PROBE]
              Dukkipati, N., Cardwell, N., Cheng, Y., and M. Mathis,
              "Tail Loss Probe (TLP): An Algorithm for Fast Recovery of
              Tail Losses", draft-dukkipati-tcpm-tcp-loss-probe-01 (work
              in progress), February 2013.

   [RFC3465]  Allman, M., "TCP Congestion Control with Appropriate Byte
              Counting (ABC)", RFC 3465, DOI 10.17487/RFC3465, February
              2003, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3465>.

   [RFC6582]  Henderson, T., Floyd, S., Gurtov, A., and Y. Nishida, "The
              NewReno Modification to TCP's Fast Recovery Algorithm",
              RFC 6582, DOI 10.17487/RFC6582, April 2012,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6582>.

   [TLP]      Dukkipati, N., Cardwell, N., Cheng, Y., and M. Mathis,
              "Tail Loss Probe (TLP): An Algorithm for Fast Recovery of
              Tail Losses", draft-dukkipati-tcpm-tcp-loss-probe-01 (work
              in progress), February 2013.

6.3.  URIs

   [1] https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/search/?email_list=quic

   [2] https://github.com/quicwg

   [3] https://github.com/quicwg/base-drafts/labels/recovery

Appendix A.  Acknowledgments

Appendix B.  Change Log

      *RFC Editor's Note:* Please remove this section prior to
      publication of a final version of this document.

B.1.  Since draft-ietf-quic-recovery-06

   Nothing yet.

B.2.  Since draft-ietf-quic-recovery-05

   o  Add more congestion control text (#776)







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B.3.  Since draft-ietf-quic-recovery-04

   No significant changes.

B.4.  Since draft-ietf-quic-recovery-03

   No significant changes.

B.5.  Since draft-ietf-quic-recovery-02

   o  Integrate F-RTO (#544, #409)

   o  Add congestion control (#545, #395)

   o  Require connection abort if a skipped packet was acknowledged
      (#415)

   o  Simplify RTO calculations (#142, #417)

B.6.  Since draft-ietf-quic-recovery-01

   o  Overview added to loss detection

   o  Changes initial default RTT to 100ms

   o  Added time-based loss detection and fixes early retransmit

   o  Clarified loss recovery for handshake packets

   o  Fixed references and made TCP references informative

B.7.  Since draft-ietf-quic-recovery-00

   o  Improved description of constants and ACK behavior

B.8.  Since draft-iyengar-quic-loss-recovery-01

   o  Adopted as base for draft-ietf-quic-recovery

   o  Updated authors/editors list

   o  Added table of contents

Authors' Addresses







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   Jana Iyengar (editor)
   Google

   Email: jri@google.com


   Ian Swett (editor)
   Google

   Email: ianswett@google.com









































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