Abstract

Flow size based congestion control has the potential to improve user perceived Web performance due to the heavy tailed characteristic of file size distributions in the Web. After discussing the benefits and drawbacks of transport protocol and router based solutions for size based congestion control, guidelines for algorithm design are developed. Using these guidelines we find that size based congestion control needs to incorporate TCP models to avoid undesirable user incentives. Based on this insight we specify enhancements to TCP featuring size based congestion control and provide arguments for parameter settings. It is shown by simulation that our modified version of TCP significantly outperforms NewReno from a user perspective in scenarios using realistic models for Web traffic and topologies with multiple congested links. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book