[e2e] tcp in high rate network

[Sally Floyd]

> The simplistic answer is that there is nothing in the TCP protocol
> that limits the speed at which it can work.

For an internet-draft on the limitations of the TCP protocol in the
speed at which it can work, and for a proposed modification to
address this, you would look at:
"HighSpeed TCP for Large Congestion Windows",
"http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-floyd-tcp-highspeed-00.txt",
and related info on the HighSpeed TCP web page at:
"http://www.icir.org/floyd/hstcp.html".

This has been posted for discussion in the tsvwg mailing list.

- Sally

The abstract: 

   This document proposes HighSpeed TCP, a modification to TCP's
   congestion control mechanism for use with TCP connections with large
   congestion windows.  The congestion control mechanisms of the
   current, Standard TCP constrains the congestion windows that can be
   achieved by TCP in realistic environments.  For example, for a
   Standard TCP connection with 1500-byte packets and a 100 ms round-
   trip time, achieving a steady-state throughput of 10 Gbps would
   require an average congestion window of 83,333 segments, and a packet
   drop rate of at most one congestion event every 5,000,000,000 packet
   (or equivalently, at most one congestion event every 1 2/3 hours).
   We do not consider this a realistic condition.  To address this
   limitation of TCP, this document proposes HighSpeed TCP, and solicits
   experimentation and feedback from the wider community.