TCP congestion control based on bandwidth estimation techniques

A system for controlling network congestion, comprising:

• a device configured for communicating over a network;
• a processor within said device configured for controlling the sending and receiving of packets over said network;
• and programming configured for executing on said processor for, sending packets of a sequence in a back-to-back nature in a single burst in which there is no delay between the back of one packet and the beginning of the next packet, marking packets, in a sender, to explicitly indicate if they are sent back-to-back, by placing an indication in a modified header of the packet that is to be sent by the sender;
• estimating network bandwidth in response to receipt of said explicit indications of back-to-back packets to generate network bandwidth estimates, establishing congestion control parameters in response to said network bandwidth estimates;
• controlling the length of packet trains transmitted by the sender in response to modifying the rate at which receipt acknowledgements (ACKs) are communicated from the receiver to the sender to which the sender transmits a corresponding number of packets back-to-back;
• wherein said rate at which acknowledgements are communicated by the receiver is configured to control the number of back-to-back packets to be sent by the sender;
• and wherein said rate is given as the number of back-to-back packets to be sent by the sender for each said acknowledgment (ACK) sent by the receiver;
• wherein said receiver sends an acknowledgement (ACK) for every given number of data packet arrivals according to the rate of acknowledgements, rate value m, and in response to the rate of acknowledgements the sender transmits a given number of data packets back-to-back, the given number of packets to be sent back-to-back being determined by rate at which the sender receives the acknowledgements.

A system for controlling network congestion comprising:

• a device configured for communicating over a network;
• a processor within said device configured for controlling the sending and receiving of packets over said network;
• and programming configured for executing on said processor for, sending packets of a sequence in a back-to-back nature in a single burst in which there is no delay between the back of one packet and the beginning of the next packet, explicit marking of packets by a sender of the packets, which are sent back-to-back, by placing an indication in a modified header of the packets, estimating network bandwidth in response to receipt of explicit indications of back-to-back packets or utilizing back-to-back packet estimations, controlling the length of packet trains transmitted by the sender in response to altering the rate at which receipt acknowledgements (ACKs) are communicated from the receiver to the sender as based on estimated network bandwidth;
• wherein said rate at which acknowledgements are communicated by the receiver comprises the number of back-to-back packets to be sent by the sender;
• wherein said rate value m is given as the number of back-to-back packets to be sent by the sender for each said acknowledgment (ACK) sent by the receiver;
• wherein said receiver sends an acknowledgement (ACK) for every given number of data packet arrivals according to the rate of acknowledgements, rate value m, and in response to the rate of acknowledgements the sender transmits a given number of data packets back-to-back, the given number of packets to be sent back-to-back being determined by rate at which the sender receives the acknowledgements;
• and wherein the size of segments being sent is reduced a given number of bits from said maximum segment size (MSS), or the setting of at least one header bit is changed, for explicitly indicating by the sender to the receiver that said packets are being sent back-to-back.

A method of using bandwidth estimation to improve transport control protocol (TCP) congestion control within a packet based network, comprising:

• marking each packet explicitly by a sender that is being sent back-to-back, from the sender, to a receiver, by placing an indication in a modified header of the packet;
• wherein packets of a sequence are in a back-to-back nature when sent in a single burst in which there is no delay between the back of one packet and the beginning of the next packet;
• estimating bandwidth in response to receiving packets from other senders which are explicitly marked as back-to-back packets;
• and
• communicating congestion control parameters to the sender in response to said bandwidth estimates;
• altering the rate at which receipt acknowledgements (ACKs) are communicated from the receiver to the sender as based on estimated network bandwidth whereby the sender transmits a corresponding number of packets back-to-back;
• wherein said rate at which acknowledgements are communicated by the receiver comprises the number of back-to-back packets to be sent by the sender;
• wherein said rate value m is given as the number of back-to-back packets to be sent by the sender for each said acknowledgment (ACK) sent by the receiver;
• wherein said receiver sends an acknowledgement (ACK) for every given number of data packet arrivals according to the rate of acknowledgements, rate value m, and in response to the rate of acknowledgements the sender transmits a given number of data packets back-to-back, the given number of packets to be sent back-to-back being determined by rate at which the sender receives the acknowledgements;
• and wherein the size of segments being sent is reduced a given number of bits from said maximum segment size (MSS) for explicitly indicating by the sender to the receiver that said packets are being sent back-to-back.