Analysing TCP for Bursty Traffic
ABSTRACT
The Transmission Control Protocol has been designed to support interactive and bulk applications, with performance tuned to support bulk applications that desire to continuously send data. In contrast, this paper analyses TCP performance for a class of applications that do not wish to send continuous data, but instead generate bursts of data separated by application-limited periods in which little or no data is sent. In this context, the paper evaluates an experimental method, Congestion Window Validation (CWV), proposed to mitigate the network impact of bursty TCP applications. Simulation results show that TCP-CWV exhibits a conservative behaviour during application-limited periods. The results also show that TCP-CWV is able to use the available capacity after an idle period over a shared path and that this can have benefit, especially over long delay paths, when compared to slow-start restart specified by standard TCP. The paper recommends the development of CWV-like algorithms to improve the performance for bursty applications while also providing an incentive for application designers to use congestion control.
The Transmission Control Protocol has been designed to support interactive and bulk applications, with performance tuned to support bulk applications that desire to continuously send data. In contrast, this paper analyses TCP performance for a class of applications that do not wish to send continuous data, but instead generate bursts of data separated by application-limited periods in which little or no data is sent. In this context, the paper evaluates an experimental method, Congestion Window Validation (CWV), proposed to mitigate the network impact of bursty TCP applications. Simulation results show that TCP-CWV exhibits a conservative behaviour during application-limited periods. The results also show that TCP-CWV is able to use the available capacity after an idle period over a shared path and that this can have benefit, especially over long delay paths, when compared to slow-start restart specified by standard TCP. The paper recommends the development of CWV-like algorithms to improve the performance for bursty applications while also providing an incentive for application designers to use congestion control.
Cite this paper
nullI. Biswas, A. Sathiaseelan, R. Secchi and G. Fairhurst, "Analysing TCP for Bursty Traffic," International Journal of Communications, Network and System Sciences, Vol. 3 No. 7, 2010, pp. 585-592. doi: 10.4236/ijcns.2010.37078.
nullI. Biswas, A. Sathiaseelan, R. Secchi and G. Fairhurst, "Analysing TCP for Bursty Traffic," International Journal of Communications, Network and System Sciences, Vol. 3 No. 7, 2010, pp. 585-592. doi: 10.4236/ijcns.2010.37078.
References
[1] J. Postel, “Transmission Control Protocol,” STD 7, RFC 793, September 1981. [2] V. Jacobson, “Congestion Avoidance and Control,” ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, Vol. 25, No. 1, 1995, pp. 157-187. [3] M. Handley, J. Padhye and S. Floyd, “TCP Congestion Window Validation,” RFC 2861, June 2000. [4] H. F. Nielsen, J. Gettys, A. Baird-Smith, E. Prud’hommeaux, H. Lie and C. Lilley, “Network Performance Effects of HTTP/1.1, CSS1, and PNG,” Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM’97 Conference on Applications, Technologies, Architectures, and Protocols for Computer Communication, Cannes, France, September 1997, pp. 155-166. [5] J. Heidemann, K. Obraczka and J. Touch, “Modeling the Performance of HTTP over Several Transport Protocols,” IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, Vol. 5, No. 5, 1997, pp. 616-630. [6] L. Guo, E. Tan, S. Chen, Z. Xiao, O. Spatscheck and X. Zhang, “Delving into Internet Streaming Media Delivery: A Quality and Resource Utilization Perspective,” Pro- ceedings of the 6th ACM SIGCOMM Conference on Internet Measurement, Rio de Janeriro, Brazil, 2006, pp. 217-230. [7] B. Eli, B. S. Abdul, R. Dan and S. Henning, “The Delay-Friendliness of TCP,” Proceedings of the 2008 ACM SIGMETRICS International Conference on Mea- surement and Modeling of Computer Systems, Annapolis, MD, USA, 2008, pp. 49-60. [8] S. Baset, E. Brosh, V. Misra, D. Rubenstein and H. Schulzrinne, “Understanding the Behavior of TCP for Real-Time CBR Workloads,” Proceedings of the 2006 ACM CoNEXT Conference, Lisboa, Portugal, 2006. [9] M. Allman, V. Paxson and E. Blanton, “TCP Congestion Control,” RFC 5681, September 2009. [10] M. Handley, S. Floyd, J. Padhye and J. Widmer, “TCP Friendly Rate Control (TFRC): Protocol Specification,” RFC 3448, January 2003. [11] Md. I. Biswas and G. Fairhurst, “A Practical Evaluation of Congestion Window Validation Behaviour,” 9th Annual Postgraduate Symposium in the Convergence of Tele- communications, Networking and Broadcasting PGNet, Liverpool, UK, 2008. [12] Md. I. Biswas and G. Fairhurst, “An Investigation of TCP Congestion Window Validation over Satellite Paths,” 4th Advanced Satellite Mobile Systems Conference, Bologna, Italy, 2008, pp. 37-42. [13] H. Balakrishnan, S. Seshan, M. Stemm and R. Katz, “Analysing Stability in Wide-Area Network Performance,” ACM Sigmetrics Performance Evaluation Review, Vol. 25, No. 1, 1997, pp. 2-12. [14] J. Ni, H. Xie, S. Tatikonda and Y. R. Yang, “Network Routing Topology Inference from End-to-End Measure- ments,” Technical Report, Yale University, 2007. [15] A. C. Snoeren and H. Balakrishnan, “An End-to-End Approach to Host Mobility,” 6th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking, Boston, Massachusetts, August 2000, pp. 155-166. [16] S. A. Baset and H. Schulzrinne, “An Analysis of the Skype Peer-to-Peer Internet Telephony Protocol,” IEEE INFOCOM, Barcelona, Spain, 2006, pp. 1-12. [17] V. Jacobson and R. Braden, “TCP Extensions for Long- Delay Paths,” RFC 1072, October 1988.
[1] J. Postel, “Transmission Control Protocol,” STD 7, RFC 793, September 1981. [2] V. Jacobson, “Congestion Avoidance and Control,” ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, Vol. 25, No. 1, 1995, pp. 157-187. [3] M. Handley, J. Padhye and S. Floyd, “TCP Congestion Window Validation,” RFC 2861, June 2000. [4] H. F. Nielsen, J. Gettys, A. Baird-Smith, E. Prud’hommeaux, H. Lie and C. Lilley, “Network Performance Effects of HTTP/1.1, CSS1, and PNG,” Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM’97 Conference on Applications, Technologies, Architectures, and Protocols for Computer Communication, Cannes, France, September 1997, pp. 155-166. [5] J. Heidemann, K. Obraczka and J. Touch, “Modeling the Performance of HTTP over Several Transport Protocols,” IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, Vol. 5, No. 5, 1997, pp. 616-630. [6] L. Guo, E. Tan, S. Chen, Z. Xiao, O. Spatscheck and X. Zhang, “Delving into Internet Streaming Media Delivery: A Quality and Resource Utilization Perspective,” Pro- ceedings of the 6th ACM SIGCOMM Conference on Internet Measurement, Rio de Janeriro, Brazil, 2006, pp. 217-230. [7] B. Eli, B. S. Abdul, R. Dan and S. Henning, “The Delay-Friendliness of TCP,” Proceedings of the 2008 ACM SIGMETRICS International Conference on Mea- surement and Modeling of Computer Systems, Annapolis, MD, USA, 2008, pp. 49-60. [8] S. Baset, E. Brosh, V. Misra, D. Rubenstein and H. Schulzrinne, “Understanding the Behavior of TCP for Real-Time CBR Workloads,” Proceedings of the 2006 ACM CoNEXT Conference, Lisboa, Portugal, 2006. [9] M. Allman, V. Paxson and E. Blanton, “TCP Congestion Control,” RFC 5681, September 2009. [10] M. Handley, S. Floyd, J. Padhye and J. Widmer, “TCP Friendly Rate Control (TFRC): Protocol Specification,” RFC 3448, January 2003. [11] Md. I. Biswas and G. Fairhurst, “A Practical Evaluation of Congestion Window Validation Behaviour,” 9th Annual Postgraduate Symposium in the Convergence of Tele- communications, Networking and Broadcasting PGNet, Liverpool, UK, 2008. [12] Md. I. Biswas and G. Fairhurst, “An Investigation of TCP Congestion Window Validation over Satellite Paths,” 4th Advanced Satellite Mobile Systems Conference, Bologna, Italy, 2008, pp. 37-42. [13] H. Balakrishnan, S. Seshan, M. Stemm and R. Katz, “Analysing Stability in Wide-Area Network Performance,” ACM Sigmetrics Performance Evaluation Review, Vol. 25, No. 1, 1997, pp. 2-12. [14] J. Ni, H. Xie, S. Tatikonda and Y. R. Yang, “Network Routing Topology Inference from End-to-End Measure- ments,” Technical Report, Yale University, 2007. [15] A. C. Snoeren and H. Balakrishnan, “An End-to-End Approach to Host Mobility,” 6th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking, Boston, Massachusetts, August 2000, pp. 155-166. [16] S. A. Baset and H. Schulzrinne, “An Analysis of the Skype Peer-to-Peer Internet Telephony Protocol,” IEEE INFOCOM, Barcelona, Spain, 2006, pp. 1-12. [17] V. Jacobson and R. Braden, “TCP Extensions for Long- Delay Paths,” RFC 1072, October 1988.