AW: [e2e] TCP un-friendly congestion control

[Michael Welzl]

Hi all,

All right, let's introduce some controversy to this thread:


> Networking research community at large should have a hard look at this
> problem and come up with a better congestion control algorithm for this
> regime. TCP has gone through too much tweaking and we need some
> alternatives. However, it is not to say we should all abandon 
> TCP. What I am
> trying to say is that we need to modify TCP in more fundamental ways than
> simple tweaks.

I agree. And I think that a fundamentally new congestion control mechanism
should not be introduced into the Internet as totally TCP-friendly
( = downwards compatible ), but it should be slightly MORE aggressive than
TCP. What I mean is that it should downgrade other TCP flows just a little
bit more than regular TCP would, but not to a degree that would render
these flows totally useless. "downgrade just a little bit more" would have
to be quantified, measured and well understood, of course ...

This would create an incentive for users to switch to the new
mechanism, which would, eventually, be good for the network as
a whole because the new mechanism would of course have to be better
than TCP. This would have to be done very carefully, but I seriously
believe that it is the right way to do it.

The shooting season starts...    :)

Best regards,
Michael