[e2e] Are Packet Trains / Packet Bursts a Problem in TCP?

Bob Braden braden at ISI.EDU
Mon Sep 25 12:11:05 PDT 2006



  *> 
  *> There are places where improving TCP burstiness can be of value, such  
  *> as in the cases where (usually Linux) TCPs decide to send their  
  *> entire next window in a short period of time it would be nice of they  
  *> could be convinced to do so at a rate that doesn't exceed cwnd/srtt. 

The ability of an OS to do that pacing has traditionally been limited
by the coarse-grain software clocks that were available -- i.e., by
interrupt overhead.  Suppose CPU chip designers listened to the needs
of networking people.  Could they provide fine-grain hardware clocks
that could be easily used by transport protocols for pacing out packets
in large windows?

Bob Braden
 


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