TCP performs poorly on paths that reorder packets significantly, where it misinterprets out-of-order delivery as packet loss. The sender responds with a fast retransmit though no actual loss has occurred. These repeated false fast retransmits keep the sender's window small, and severely degrade the throughput it attains. Requiring nearly in-order delivery needlessly restricts and complicates Internet routing systems and routers. Such beneficial systems as multi-path routing and parallel packet switches are difficult to deploy in a way that preserves ordering. Toward a more reordering-tolerant Internet architecture, the paper presents enhancements to TCP that improve the protocol's robustness to reordered and delayed packets.
Did you find this white paper useful?
26 out of 47 users found this white paper useful
Related white papers
Nortel Networks Case Study: Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA)
For Korea's Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA), producing its worldwide best-sellers involves sourcing millions of parts and components. The challenge for KAMA was to implement a networking solution connecting remote users,...
Efficient Network Switching Hierarchy
In this paper, it is argued that the right granularity for grooming in the next-generation core optical network is STS-48 (2.5 Gbps), while STS-1 (51.8 Mbps) grooming is better suited...
Colgate University Students Connect Anywhere, Anytime on Campus or Around Town
Colgate, one of the leading liberal arts colleges in the country wanted to provide students and faculty with wireless access for a range of mobile devices both on and off...
Measurement and Analysis of Single-Hop Delay on an IP Backbone Network
This paper measures single-hop delay as experienced by packets in the Sprint IP backbone network. This paper develops a methodology to identify the contributing factors to the single-hop delay that...
Scalable VPN Routing Via Relaying
Enterprise customers are increasingly adopting MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) VPN (Virtual Private Network) service that offers direct any-to-any reachability among the customer sites via a provider network. Unfortunately this direct...
Improving Load Balancing With Multipath Routing
Internet service providers have to provision network resources to optimize bandwidth utilization. Dynamic routing protocols take traffic variations into account to control the load distribution. Multipath routing protocols attempt to...
Cisco MDS 9000 Family: Total Investment Protection
Evolving business requirements underscore the need for high-density, high-speed, and low-latency networks that improve data center scalability and manageability while controlling IT costs. As discussed in this paper the Cisco...
