Congestion control as a hot topic in IETF
Bob Braden <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.network.end2end |
|---|---|
| Organization | USC/ISI |
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
I hope that people of this E2E list are reading the current thread on the IETF list about choosing a new Transport Area director who is/is not an expert in congestion control. Some of you have been around long enough to recall the congestion collapse of the (NSF-sponsored) Internet, before Van J showed us how to not be stupid when he defined the basic TCP CC mechanism. They/we invented the concept of "TCP Friendly" to try to head off a race to the bottom while providing an easy-to-understand criterion for acceptable CC. It seems like an interesting question for research to determine whether widespread adoption of some future transport protocol with an ill-advised or inadequate CC mechanism could still cause congestion collapse of large areas of the Internet,or only local patches. Or has that been researched and I missed it? Congestion control seems a bit like riding a unicycle -- even after you learn how to do it, you have to pay attention every moment or you are in danger of falling off. Bob Braden