[Link] is congestion control?
List and explain various approaches to
congestion control – Jan2024/10 marks
TCP congestion control
TCP congestion control is a mechanism that prevents network overload by managing the rate at
which a sender transmits data
Each sender limits the rate at which it sends traffic into its connection as a function of
perceived congestion.
i) If sender perceives that there is little congestion, then sender increases its data-rate.
ii) If sender perceives that there is congestion, then sender reduces its data-rate
If the network cannot deliver the data as fast as it is created by the sender, it
must tell the sender to slow down.
TCP congestion control is a method
used by the TCP protocol to manage data flow over a network and
prevent congestion.
1. TCP uses a congestion window (cwnd)
2. congestion policy
a) Slow Start Phase: to quickly ramp up the sending rate, Starts slow
increment is exponential to the threshold.
b) Congestion Avoidance / Additive increase Phase: After reaching the
threshold increment is by 1.
c) Congestion Detection Phase: The sender goes back to the Slow start
phase or the Congestion avoidance phase
[Link] Window (𝑐𝑤𝑛𝑑)
The sender's own limit on how much data can be in transit at any one time, based on its
perception of network congestion.
2a) Slow Start Phase: to quickly ramp up the sending rate,
At the beginning of a connection or after a timeout, the 𝑐𝑤𝑛𝑑 grows exponentially. For each
acknowledgment (ACK ) received, the window size doubles(2n=1,2,4,8…), allowing the sender
to quickly probe the available network capacity
Starts slow increments the sending rate exponentially up to the threshold
In this phase after every RTT the congestion window size increments
exponentially
2b)Congestion Avoidance:/ Additive Increase
After the slow start phase, the sending rate is increased more slowly, typically by
adding one
Once the cwnd reaches a certain threshold (𝑠𝑠𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑒𝑠ℎ), the growth changes to additive.
For
𝑐𝑤𝑛𝑑
each round-trip time (RTT) where all segments are successfully acknowledged, the
increases by one packet.
When the size of the congestion window reaches the slow-start threshold, the slow-start
phase stops and the additive phase begins.
o After each RTT cwnd = cwnd + 1.
Add one segment to the window size for each acknowledgement (ACK)
received. This is also known as Additive Increase
AIMD (Additive Increase/Multiplicative Decrease):
The core principle of the system.
o Additive Increase: As described in Congestion Avoidance, the window grows
slowly and linearly when the network seems to have capacity.
duplicate ACKs), the sender drastically reduces its 𝑐𝑤𝑛𝑑 by half.
Multiplicative Decrease: When congestion is detected (e.g., through a timeout or
2c) Congestion Detection Phase:
The process of identifying when the network is overloaded, most commonly through
packet loss.
o Timeouts: A timer expires, indicating a lost packet and a significant congestion
event.
o Duplicate ACKs: Receiving multiple acknowledgments for the same packet
signals that a single packet was lost, but the connection is likely still functional
enough for a faster recovery.
o Fast Retransmit and Fast Recovery: Algorithms that use duplicate ACKs to
𝑐𝑤𝑛𝑑to keep the data flowing.
resend a lost packet without waiting for a full timeout, and then adjust the
After Congestion Detection
Stops sending segments, set threshold to half of the previoue threshold, repeat slow start and
congestion avoidance phase. Still congestion again , set threshold to half of the previoue
threshold, repeat slow start and congestion avoidance phase. ,and so on
In diagram, initially threshold is set as 20 windows, after detection congestion set threshold to
20/2=10, then 10/5=2 so on..
-------------------