Method and Apparatus for Waveform Independent Congestion Control

A method for controlling congestion of information packets in a computer network comprising at least a first node and a second node, the method comprising:

• initializing a length of congestion window to indicate a maximum number of unacknowledged packets in the computer network;
• and
• iteratively performing:
• determining a transmission rate for information packets sent from the first node to the second node;
• determining a reception rate using timestamps in responses received from the second node to the first node, where the timestamps are inserted by the second node;
• increasing the length of the congestion window when a time average of the transmission rate is no greater than a time average of the reception rate;
• and
• decreasing the length of the congestion window when a time average of the transmission rate is greater than a time average of the reception rate by at least a threshold amount.

A computer network comprising a first node and a second node, where

• the first node is configured to transmit information packets to the second node;
• the second node is configured to respond to information packets received from the first node by inserting a timestamp into a response packet and transmitting the response packet to the first node;
• and
• the first node is further configured to:
• determine a transmission rate for information packets sent from the first node to the second node;
• determine a reception rate for response packets received by the first node from the second node from the timestamps in the response packets;
• and
• adjust a length of a congestion window dependent upon a difference between the transmission rate and the reception rate.