The Impact of Network Variabilities on TCP Clocking Schemes
(NOTE: Sheng-Wei Chen is also known as Kuan-Ta Chen.)
TCP employs a self-clocking scheme that times the
sending of packets. In that, the data packets are sent in a burst
when the returning acknowledgement packets are received. This
self-clocking scheme (also known as ack-clocking) is deemed a
key factor to the the burstiness of TCP traffic and the source of
various performance problems¡Xhigh packet loss, long delay, and
high delay jitter. Previous work has suggested contradictively the
effectiveness of TCP Pacing as a remedy to alleviate the traffic
burstiness.
In this paper, we analyze systematically and in more robust experiments the impact of network variabilities on the behavior of TCP clocking schemes. We find that 1) aggregated pacing traffic could be burstier than aggregated ack-clocking traffic. Physical explanation and experimental simulations are provided to support this argument. 2) The round-trip time heterogeneity and flow multiplexing significantly influence the behaviors of both ack-clocking and pacing schemes. Evaluating the performance of clocking schemes without considering these effects is prone to inconsistent results. 3) Pacing outperforms ack-clocking in more realistic settings from the traffic burstiness point of view.
In this paper, we analyze systematically and in more robust experiments the impact of network variabilities on the behavior of TCP clocking schemes. We find that 1) aggregated pacing traffic could be burstier than aggregated ack-clocking traffic. Physical explanation and experimental simulations are provided to support this argument. 2) The round-trip time heterogeneity and flow multiplexing significantly influence the behaviors of both ack-clocking and pacing schemes. Evaluating the performance of clocking schemes without considering these effects is prone to inconsistent results. 3) Pacing outperforms ack-clocking in more realistic settings from the traffic burstiness point of view.
Kuan-Ta Chen, Polly Huang, Chun-Ying Huang, and Chin-Laung Lei, "The Impact of Network Variabilities on TCP Clocking Schemes," In Proceedings of the 8th Global Internet Symposium in conjunction with IEEE INFOCOM, pages 97-102, 2005.
@INPROCEEDINGS{chen05:clocking,
AUTHOR = {Kuan-Ta Chen and Polly Huang and Chun-Ying Huang and Chin-Laung Lei},
TITLE = {The Impact of Network Variabilities on {TCP} Clocking Schemes},
BOOKTITLE = {Proceedings of the 8th Global Internet Symposium in conjunction with IEEE INFOCOM},
PAGES = {97--102},
YEAR = {2005},
LOCATION = {Miami Florida USA}
}
AUTHOR = {Kuan-Ta Chen and Polly Huang and Chun-Ying Huang and Chin-Laung Lei},
TITLE = {The Impact of Network Variabilities on {TCP} Clocking Schemes},
BOOKTITLE = {Proceedings of the 8th Global Internet Symposium in conjunction with IEEE INFOCOM},
PAGES = {97--102},
YEAR = {2005},
LOCATION = {Miami Florida USA}
}
