Due to the dramatic price drop of memory network devices are configured with much larger buffer sizesthan before in order to prevent packet drop. This undermines the assumptions of the TCP congestionavoidance algorithm which depends on packet loss in order to detect and prevent network congestion. Weinvestigate the effects of this buffer bloat phenomenon on throughput and latency. Our simulations showthat increasing buffer sizes reduces throughput slightly, but sharply increases latency. When the link issaturated then large buffer sizes cause dramatic reduction of throughput rates for applications whichtransmit data only periodically. In addition we show that TCP is in fact remarkably resilient to packetdrop and can tolerate very small buffer sizes very well at the benefit of optimal latency.
Prof. Dr. Cees de Laat netbuf pageDocument in OS3
Related Publications :
- Performance simulation of buffer bloat in routers Project Report, Feb - Mar 2011