Method, system and article for improved TCP performance during packet reordering

• US 7,385,923 B2
• Filed: 08/14/2003
• Issued: 06/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Vallabhaneni, Vasu, Venkatsubra, Venkat, Jain, Vinit, Baratakke, Kavitha Vittal Murthy
• Primary Examiner(s): Ngo; Ricky Q.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sinkantarakom; Pao
• Application Number:
  US10/640,818
• Publication Number:
  US 20050036511A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,762 Days
• Field of Search: 370/236, 370/236.2, 370/241.1, 370229-235, 709/224, 709/225
• US Class Current: 370/235
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/161 Implementation details of TCP/IP or UDP/IP stack architecture; Specification of modified or new header fields
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/163 In-band adaptation of TCP data exchange; In-band control procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

TCP congestion avoidance is implemented upon retransmission of a packet and is reverted back to the original congestion state upon receipt of an early acknowledgement (ACK), indicating reordering of packets, thereby eliminating a needless restriction on TCP bandwidth. Upon receiving an ACK to a retransmitted packet, it is determined if the ACK resulted from receipt of the original reordered packet or the retransmitted packet, based on the arrival time of the ACK at the sender. If the round-trip-time (RTT) for the retransmitted packet is much lower than the average or current calculated RTT for the network link between sender and receiver, then the retransmission occurred as a result of a reordering event, and the congestion window is restored back to its value prior to the retransmission, thereby permitting the network link to continue operating at its original increased throughput.

Claims

1. A method for improved transport layer performance following packet reordering in a network, wherein the network comprises a network connection between a sender and a receiver and wherein the network connection operates in a congestion state, said method comprising the steps of:

in response to receiving at least one first acknowledgement requesting a data packet be retransmitted over the network connection operating in a first congestion state, retransmitting the requested data packet over the network connection from the sender to the receiver;

receiving a second acknowledgement indicating that the requested data packet has been received by the receiver;

calculating the difference between the time that the second acknowledgement was received and the time that the requested data packet was retransmitted;

setting the congestion state of the network connection to the first congestion state, if the difference is less than a threshold round-trip-time, wherein the threshold round-trip-time is a minimum round-trip-time for a data packet over the network connection between the sender and the receiver; and

setting the congestion state of the network connection to a second congestion state, if the difference is greater than the threshold round-trip-time, wherein the second congestion state is less than the first congestion state.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of setting the congestion state to a third congestion state upon retransmitting the requested data packet.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising the step of storing the first congestion state prior to retransmitting the requested data packet.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the third congestion state less than the first congestion state.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the congestion state comprises a congestion window.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the congestion state comprises a slow start threshold.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of storing the time that the requested data packet is retransmitted.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the network connection operates in conformance with the TCP protocol.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein threshold round-trip-time is between 50 percent and 75 percent of an average round-trip-time for the network connection.