Improving Congestion Control in IP-based Networks Using Feedback from Routers

In the current Internet, TCP’s congestion control is performed end-to-end possibly assisted by simple and limited congestion feedback mechanisms in routers, e.g., Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) or Random Early Detection (RED). In order to control network traffic load more accurately by reducing or even preventing congestion in (parts of) the network and improving the overall performance of TCP flows, some more complex and more powerful feedback mechanisms in routers have been developed. This technical report describes the most important of such Router Congestion Feedback (RCF) approaches based on network-information sharing (NIS) between routers and end systems in detail. In addition, the properties and functionalities of these approaches are compared to find potential candidates that can be used to improve congestion control in future IP-based networks.