Abstract
Understanding the TCP congestion control mechanism from a global optimization point of view is not only important in its own right, but also crucial to the design of other transport layer traffic control protocols with provable properties. In this paper, we derive a global utility function and the corresponding optimal control law, known as TCP control law, which maximizes the global utility. The TCP control law captures the essential behaviors of TCP, including slow start, congestion avoidance, and the binary nature of congestion feedback in TCP. We find that the utility function of TCP is linear in the slow start phase and is proportional to the additive increase rate and approaches the well-known logarithm function as the data rate becomes large in the congestion avoidance phase. We also find that understanding the slow start phase with a fixed threshold is critical to the design of new transport layer control protocols to enable quality of service features. Finally, as an application, we design a Minimum Rate Guaranteed (MRG) traffic control law that shares the same utility function as the TCP control law. Our simulation study of the MRG control law indicates that it is indeed TCP friendly and can provide minimum rate guarantee as long as the percentage of network resource consumed by the MRG flows is moderately small.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 800-805 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Computer Communications |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 27 2009 |
Fingerprint
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Computer Networks and Communications
Cite this
}
Utility function of TCP. / Ye, Lei; Wang, Zhijun; Che, Hao; Chan, Henry B.C.; Lagoa, Constantino Manuel.
In: Computer Communications, Vol. 32, No. 5, 27.03.2009, p. 800-805.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Utility function of TCP
AU - Ye, Lei
AU - Wang, Zhijun
AU - Che, Hao
AU - Chan, Henry B.C.
AU - Lagoa, Constantino Manuel
PY - 2009/3/27
Y1 - 2009/3/27
N2 - Understanding the TCP congestion control mechanism from a global optimization point of view is not only important in its own right, but also crucial to the design of other transport layer traffic control protocols with provable properties. In this paper, we derive a global utility function and the corresponding optimal control law, known as TCP control law, which maximizes the global utility. The TCP control law captures the essential behaviors of TCP, including slow start, congestion avoidance, and the binary nature of congestion feedback in TCP. We find that the utility function of TCP is linear in the slow start phase and is proportional to the additive increase rate and approaches the well-known logarithm function as the data rate becomes large in the congestion avoidance phase. We also find that understanding the slow start phase with a fixed threshold is critical to the design of new transport layer control protocols to enable quality of service features. Finally, as an application, we design a Minimum Rate Guaranteed (MRG) traffic control law that shares the same utility function as the TCP control law. Our simulation study of the MRG control law indicates that it is indeed TCP friendly and can provide minimum rate guarantee as long as the percentage of network resource consumed by the MRG flows is moderately small.
AB - Understanding the TCP congestion control mechanism from a global optimization point of view is not only important in its own right, but also crucial to the design of other transport layer traffic control protocols with provable properties. In this paper, we derive a global utility function and the corresponding optimal control law, known as TCP control law, which maximizes the global utility. The TCP control law captures the essential behaviors of TCP, including slow start, congestion avoidance, and the binary nature of congestion feedback in TCP. We find that the utility function of TCP is linear in the slow start phase and is proportional to the additive increase rate and approaches the well-known logarithm function as the data rate becomes large in the congestion avoidance phase. We also find that understanding the slow start phase with a fixed threshold is critical to the design of new transport layer control protocols to enable quality of service features. Finally, as an application, we design a Minimum Rate Guaranteed (MRG) traffic control law that shares the same utility function as the TCP control law. Our simulation study of the MRG control law indicates that it is indeed TCP friendly and can provide minimum rate guarantee as long as the percentage of network resource consumed by the MRG flows is moderately small.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=61349100703&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=61349100703&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.comcom.2008.12.011
DO - 10.1016/j.comcom.2008.12.011
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:61349100703
VL - 32
SP - 800
EP - 805
JO - Computer Communications
JF - Computer Communications
SN - 0140-3664
IS - 5
ER -