New techniques for regulating TCP flow over heterogeneous networks

Abstract

We study a typical network environment where TCP traffic is generated from a source connected to a LAN (e.g. Ethernet) aggregated through an IP edge router to an access network (e.g. ATM, frame relay). Congestion at the edge router occurs when the bandwidth available in the access network cannot support the aggregated traffic generated from the LAN. This paper presents a novel approach to reduce router congestion and improve TCP performance. In particular, we propose new techniques that regulate TCP acknowledgments at the edge router without changing existing TCP implementations at the end systems. Our techniques minimize buffer requirement at network edges while maximizing the throughput. Analytical and simulation results are presented in the's paper to substantiate our claims.