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

[Craig Partridge]

Hi Bob:

A team I was on showed you could do this a few years ago.  I no longer
remember all the details (Dennis Rockwell did the hard work with UNIX
timers) but it is probably in the paper:

    J. Kulik, R. Coulter, D. Rockwell and C. Partridge,
    "Paced TCP for High Delay-Bandwidth Networks,"
    IEEE Workshop on Satellite Based Information Systems,
    December 1999.

Craig

In message <200609251911.MAA24244 at gra.isi.edu>, Bob Braden writes:

>
>
>  *> 
>  *> 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
>