Methods and applications for avoiding slow-start restart in transmission control protocol network communications

An application for avoiding “slow-start restart” at a sender, the application comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer-readable program instructions embodied in the medium, the computer-readable program instructions including:

• first instructions for establishing a connection between the sender and a receiver;
• second instructions for establishing a congestion window upon establishing the connection, wherein the congestion window defines a maximum amount of data that is transmittable to the receiver prior to receipt of an acknowledgement to previously transmitted data from the receiver;
• third instructions for setting an idle counter that measures an interval between a current time and a time of a last communication with the receiver, wherein the interval comprises an idle period;
• fourth instructions for transmitting a probe packet to the receiver;
• fifth instructions for receiving an acknowledgement to the probe packet from the receiver;
• sixth instructions for expanding the congestion window upon receipt of the acknowledgement to the probe packet and prior to receipt of an acknowledgement to previously transmitted data from the receiver to allow for a greater amount of data to be transmitted;
• and
• seventh instructions for resetting the idle counter to avoid occurrence of the slow-start restart in the communication upon receipt of the acknowledgement.

A method comprising:

• establishing a connection with a receiver;
• establishing a congestion window upon establishing the connection, wherein the congestion window defines a maximum amount of data that is transmittable to the receiver prior to receipt of an acknowledgement to previously transmitted data from the receiver;
• setting an idle counter that measures an interval between a current time and a time of a last communication with the receiver;
• transmitting a probe packet to the receiver;
• receiving an acknowledgement to the probe packet from the receiver;
• expanding the congestion window upon receipt of the acknowledgement to the probe packet and prior to receipt of an acknowledgement to previously transmitted data from the receiver to allow for a greater amount of data to be transmitted;
• and
• resetting the idle counter to avoid occurrence of the slow-start restart in the communication upon receipt of the acknowledgement.