Buffer occupancy based random sampling for congestion management

A system for buffer occupancy based congestion management comprising:

• a buffer embodied in a computer readable storage medium comprising a plurality of buffer units for storing packets received from a plurality of sources;
• a buffer manager that stores information about the packets stored in the buffer;
• a congestion estimator that monitors a congestion level in the buffer;
• an occupancy sampler that randomly selects an occupied buffer unit from the plurality of buffer units;
• and
• a congestion notification message generator that generates a congestion notification message;
• wherein when the congestion level in the buffer exceeds a threshold value the congestion notification message is sent to a source of the packet stored in the occupied buffer unit.

A computer program product for buffer occupancy based congestion management, the computer program product comprising:

• a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising:
• computer readable program code configured to:
• receive a data stream comprising a plurality of packets from a plurality sources;
• store the packets in a buffer comprising multiple storage units;
• determine if the buffer is congested;
• responsive to determining that the buffer is congested randomly select an occupied unit of the buffer and determine the source of the packet stored in the occupied unit of the buffer;
• and
• send a congestion notification message to the source of the packet stored in the occupied unit of the buffer.

A method, comprising:

• receiving, by a computing device, a data stream comprising a plurality of data flows that each include a plurality of data packets;
• storing the packets in a buffer comprising multiple storage units;
• maintaining a list of candidate data flows, wherein the list includes a percentage of the buffer that each data flow occupies;
• determining if the buffer is congested;
• responsive to determining that the buffer is congested, randomly selecting from the list of candidate data flows a data flow with a probability proportional to the percentage of the buffer that the data flow occupies;
• and
• sending a congestion notification message to a source of the randomly selected data flow.