Technique for improving transmission control protocol performance in lossy networks

A computer readable medium having computer-executable instructions for providing a transport protocol within a lossy network, comprising:

• receiving multiple packets, wherein each of the received packets includes a header and an associated sequence number, wherein the header includes a congestion alleviation indication and an impending congestion indication;
• monitoring the network for congestion caused by the received packets;
• marking the header of some of the packets with an impending congestion indication based on the outcome of the monitoring;
• transmitting the monitored multiple packets through the lossy network;
• returning acknowledgements of receipt for each of the transmitted packets, based on the sequence number associated with each of the packets, and any associated marked impending congestion indication and the congestion alleviation indication;
• monitoring each of the received acknowledgements for the sequence number and the marked impending congestion indication associated with each of the received packets;
• and
• invoking a congestion control mechanism to control a congestion window size which regulates the transmitted packets based on the monitoring of the acknowledgements and the marked impending congestion indication, and further marking the header with a congestion alleviation indication.

A computer system for providing a transport protocol within a lossy network, comprising:

• a storage device;
• an output device;
• and
• a processor programmed to repeatedly perform a method, comprising:
• receiving multiple packets, wherein each of the received packets includes a header and an associated sequence number, wherein the header includes a congestion alleviation indication and an impending congestion indication;
• monitoring the network for congestion caused by the received packets;
• marking the header of some of the packets with an impending congestion indication based on the outcome of the monitoring;
• transmitting the monitored multiple packets through the lossy network;
• returning acknowledgements of receipt for each of the transmitted packets, based on the sequence number associated with each of the packets, and any associated marked impending congestion indication and the congestion alleviation indication;
• monitoring each of the received acknowledgements for the sequence number and the marked impending congestion indication associated with each of the received packets;
• and
• invoking a congestion control mechanism to control a congestion window size which regulates the transmitted packets based on the monitoring of the acknowledgements and the marked impending congestion indication, and marking the header further with congestion alleviation indication.

An apparatus for providing a transport protocol within a lossy network, comprising:

• a sender base station to receive multiple packets from a sender and output the packets through a lossy network, wherein each of the received packets includes a header and an associated sequence number, wherein the header includes a congestion alleviation indication and an impending congestion indication;
• a communication network including an analyzer to receive the outputted packets and monitor the network for congestion caused by the received packets and to further mark the header of some of the received packets with an impending congestion indication congestion bit error based on an outcome of the monitoring;
• a receiver base station including a transmit module to transmit the packets through the lossy network;
• and
• a receiver to receive the transmitted packets and to further send acknowledgements back to the sender through the communication network, wherein the acknowledgements include a sequence number associated with each of the received packets and any associated marked impending congestion indication and the congestion alleviation indication, wherein the sender monitors each of the received acknowledgements for the sequence number and the marked impending congestion indication associated with each of the received packets, and invokes a congestion control mechanism to control a congestion window size which regulates the transmitted packets based on the monitoring of the acknowledgements and the marked impending congestion indication, and further marks the header with congestion alleviation indication.