Wesley Eddy - 12/8/03
Ohio Univeristy
CV

NEW TECHNIQUES FOR MAKING TCP ROBUST TO CORRUPTION-BASED LOSS

TCP uses packet loss as an indication of network congestion -- assuming the majority of the loss is caused by router queue overflow. In network paths where a non-negligible portion of loss is caused by corrupted packets, TCP's performance can suffer due to needless reductions in its sending rate (as response to ''congestion'' that is not really happening). This paper explores a technique, called Cumulative Explicit Transport Error Notification (CETEN) that uses information provided by the network to ensure TCP's long-term average sending rate is less negatively affected by losses due to corruption. Early simulation results show CETEN to be a promising technique in both throughput gain, and fairness to competing traffic. In addition, this paper discusses a number of practical implementation issues associated with CETEN deployment.