Modeling the burstiness of TCP

Abstract

The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is the most widely used transport protocol on the Internet. We investigate the burstiness of TCP and its impact on a network of finite TCP connections. A detailed TCP and network model is developed to quantify both the burstiness and throughput of TCP connections sharing a single bottleneck router. The range of parameters which are most important when considering burstiness are investigated. We find that, under high loads, the burstiness of the TCP protocol becomes a less significant performance factor. Extensive simulation is then used to validate our model over a wide range of parameters.