TFRC协议友好性与平稳性改进算法研究

 本文针对TFRC(TCP-Friendly Rate Control)流与TCP流竞争带宽时的友好性问题,分析了影响TFRC协议TCP友好性的因素,通过对TFRC速率计算公式中丢包率的不同幂级项引入权重系数,增加网络拥塞严重时的发送速率,减少网络拥塞较轻时的发送速率,从而降低了网络拥塞程度对TFRC流传输速率的影响.仿真实验表明该方法对TFRC协议具有较明显改进作用,提高了TFRC流的传输平稳度和TCP友好性,从而能更有效地适应多媒体流的传输要求.     

无线网络中TCP友好流媒体传输改进机制

为保持无线网络中多媒体业务对TCP的友好性，提出了一种适用于无线网络的动态自适应的流媒体传输速率调节机制。该机制通过在接收端区分网络拥塞丢包和链路错误随机丢包，准确判断网络的拥塞状况结合接收端缓存区占用程度，自适应实施多级速率调节，实现了TCP流友好性和流媒体服务质量（QoS）的折中。由于准确区分出无线链路误码丢包和动态调整流媒体QoS要求，该机制能维持较高的网络利用率。仿真实验结果显示在连接数为2和32，链路误码率从0到0．1变化时TCP,TFRC和吞吐量幅度下降幅度较大，WTFCC幅度下降相对较慢，最大相差达2M；在网络负载重时，尽管链路误码率较低，WTFCC区分链路错误与拥塞丢包，因此，端到端丢包率高于TCP和TFRC，但整体传输吞吐量也高于两者。归一化吞吐量显示WTFCC对TCP流友好。     

实时友好的网络传输MPEG-4视频全局速率控制机制

本文提出了一种改进的TFRC算法,在传统的基于TCP吞吐量模型的TFRC速率控制方案中,利用RTP和RTCP协议,结合多媒体流的特征,精确估计带宽预测模型参数.在对有效带宽预测、时延抖动、丢包率等全面分析的基础上建立了全局速率控制模型.该模型结合速率自适应MPEG-4分级编码转换机制,体现分级优先特性,较好地保证了多媒体流实时友好及传输速率的平滑性要求,并给出了一定的实验验证.     

确保最小发送速率的TCP友好拥塞控制算法

提出一种确保最小发送速率的TCP友好拥塞控制算法CQTCCA(certified quality TCP-friendly congestion control algorithm)。该算法通过将网络结点和端点相结合，在端点对UDP数据流采用基于公式的发送速率调整，使之体现对TCP数据流的友好性；在结点对RED进行改造，得到提供带优先级包标记的MRED算法，保证对实时多媒体数据流的最小带宽要求。仿真实验验证了本算法有效性。     

基于显式速率的TCP友好的UDP拥塞控制策略

本文提出了一种基于显式速率的UDP拥塞控制策略：通过源端和网络中的路由器相互配合，使得实时UDP应用能够根据网络的反馈以瓶颈链路的公平带宽为速率发送数据。此种控制策略对TCP应用是友好的，并且提高了网络的吞吐量和利用率。仿真结果表明：基于显式速率的UDP拥塞控制策略与采用TFRC(TCP—Friendly Rate Control)的UDP拥塞控制策略相比，在吞吐量、TCP友好性等方面性能有较大提高。     

传输实时多媒体流的新协议TFRC

当前实际网络中传输实时多媒体流使用UDP协议；但UDP与TCP间不公平。基于此近几年提出了TCP友好的概念，TFRC是其中发展较好的一个协议，是当前的一个研究热点。由于国内对其研究较少，对TFRC很有介绍的必要。     

用于不可靠单播流的拥塞控制算法

为在兼顾公平性的同时改善高速网络环境中的性能,提出了一种基于速率的不可靠单播流拥塞控制算法RAUU(rate adaptation for unreliable unicast traffic).该算法以保存一定数量的冗余分组为控制目标,根据实际与期望冗余分组数量的差值按比例调节发送速率,控制中综合考虑了时延和丢包,并为避免速率控制的固有缺点作了针对性的设计.理论分析表明,在理想网络条件下RAUU存在并将收敛于惟一的平衡点;仿真实验显示一方面RAUU的性能与FAST相似,其吞吐率平滑性接近TFRC(TCP-friendly rate control),另一方面RAUU算法对TCP流量相对公平.     

TFRC协议改进

为了对非TCP流进行拥塞控制,使它们与TCP流公平地分享带宽,人们设计了多种对TCP友好(TCP-Friendly)的协议。而TFRC(TCPFriendlyRateControl)协议是其中最重要的一种,它是IETF的提议标准。发送端根据接收端的反馈信息计算合理的发送速率。但如果贪婪接收端提供虚假反馈信息,会使发送端以不合理的高速率发送数据。本文对TFRC协议进行改进,使发送端能检测出虚假反馈信息,并对贪婪接收端进行惩罚。     

TCP友好的速率控制

TCP友好的速率控制(TFRC)主要适用于实时数据传输的一种拥塞控制机制,具有突出的TCP友好性即在相同的环回时间(RTT)下可以和TCP流享有近乎相同的带宽,从而避免了由于UDP等传输层协议缺乏拥塞控制而带来的网络拥塞甚至崩溃.本文简要介绍了它的协议机制并通过一些仿真和试验的结果初步讨论了其性能.     

一种拥塞感知的TFRC协议慢启动算法

 本文分析了TFRC(TCP-Friendly Rate Control)协议在慢启动阶段采用类似TCP协议的倍增发送速率机制存在的问题,提出了一种利用回路响应时间(Round Trip Time,RTT)来自适应调节慢启动阶段速率的算法.通过分析实际RTT值和EWMA(Exponentially Weighted Moving Average)处理后的平均RTT值来感知网络当前的拥塞状况,以调节发送速率的激进程度.仿真实验表明,该方法对TFRC协议具有明显的改进作用,减少了慢启动阶段结束时的报文丢失率,提高了协议的传输平稳度和吞吐量,从而能更有效地适应多媒体流的传输要求.     

Limitations of Equation-Based Congestion Control

We study limitations of an equation-based congestion control protocol, called TCP-friendly rate control (TFRC). It examines how the three main factors that determine TFRC throughput, namely, the TCP-friendly equation, loss event rate estimation, and delay estimation, can influence the long-term throughput imbalance between TFRC and TCP. Especially, we show that different sending rates of competing flows cause these flows to experience different loss event rates. There are several fundamental reasons why TFRC and TCP flows have different average sending rates, from the first place. Earlier work shows that the convexity of the TCP-friendly equation used in TFRC causes the sending rate difference. We report two additional reasons in this paper: 1) the convexity of where is a loss event period and 2) different retransmission timeout period (RTO) estimations of TCP and TFRC. These factors can be the reasons for TCP and TFRC to experience initially different sending rates. But we find that the loss event rate difference due to the differing sending rates greatly amplifies the initial throughput difference; in some extreme cases, TFRC uses around 20 times more, or sometimes 10 times less, bandwidth than TCP. Despite these factors influencing the throughput difference, we also find that simple heuristics can greatly mitigate the problem.     

Using Quick‐Start to enhance TCP‐friendly rate control performance in bidirectional satellite networks

In the not so distant future, we envisage an Internet where the biggest share of capacity is used by streaming applications. To avoid congestion collapse from unresponsive flows calls for a robust and ubiquitous end‐to‐end multimedia congestion control mechanism, such as TCP‐friendly rate control (TFRC), which provides fair sharing with the other Internet traffic. This paper therefore analyses the implications of using rate‐adaptive congestion control over satellite links that utilize demand allocation multiple access (DAMA) to maximize satellite transponder utilization. The interaction between TFRC and DAMA is explored using simulations supported by fluidic flow models. The analysis shows that DAMA reduces the start‐up phase of TFRC, causing non‐negligible delays. To mitigate this problem, we propose a new cross‐layer method based on the Quick‐Start mechanism. This can accelerate the start‐up of multimedia flows by a judicious allocation of additional capacity derived from cross‐layer signalling. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

VIRAL: coupling congestion control with fair video quality metric

Video streaming is often carried out by congestion controlled transport protocols to preserve network sustainability. However, the success of the growth of such non-live video flows is linked to the user quality of experience. Thus, one possible solution is to deploy complex quality of service systems inside the core network. Another possibility would be to keep the end-to-end principle while making aware transport protocols of video quality rather than throughput. The objective of this article is to investigate the latter by proposing a novel transport mechanism which targets video quality fairness among video flows. Our proposal, called VIRAL for virtual rate-quality curve, allows congestion controlled transport protocols to provide fairness in terms of both throughput and video quality. VIRAL is compliant with any rate-based congestion control mechanisms that enable a smooth sending rate for multimedia applications. Implemented inside TFRC a TCP-friendly protocol, we show that VIRAL enables both intra-fairness between video flows in terms of video quality and inter-fairness in terms of throughput between TCP and video flows.     

Rate control for streaming video over wireless

Rate control is an important issue in video streaming applications for both wired and wireless networks. A widely accepted rate control method in wired networks is TCP-friendly rate control (TFRC) (Floyd, 2000). It is equation-based rate control in which the TCP-friendly rate is determined as a function of packet loss rate, round-trip time, and packet size. TFRC assumes that packet loss in wired networks is primarily due to congestion, and as such is not applicable to wireless networks in which the main cause of packet loss is at the physical layer. In this article we review existing approaches to solve this problem. Then we propose multiple TFRC connections as an end-to-end rate control solution for wireless video streaming. We show that this approach not only avoids modifications to the network infrastructure or network protocol, but also results in full utilization of the wireless channel. NS-2 simulations, actual experiments over a 1/spl times/RTT CDMA wireless data network, and video streaming simulations using traces from the actual experiments are carried out to characterize the performance and show the efficiency of our proposed approach.     

TCP-friendly flow control of wireless multimedia using ECN marking

In a wireless network packet losses can be caused not only by network congestion but also by unreliable error-prone wireless links. Therefore, flow control schemes which use packet loss as a congestion measure cannot be directly applicable to a wireless network because there is no way to distinguish congestion losses from wireless losses. In this paper, we extend the so-called TCP-friendly flow control scheme, which was originally developed for the flow control of multimedia flows in a wired IP network environment, to a wireless environment. The main idea behind our scheme is that by using explicit congestion notification (ECN) marking in conjunction with random early detection (RED) queue management scheme intelligently, it is possible that not only the degree of network congestion is notified to multimedia sources explicitly in the form of ECN-marked packet probability but also wireless losses are hidden from multimedia sources. We calculate TCP-friendly rate based on ECN-marked packet probability instead of packet loss probability, thereby effectively eliminating the effect of wireless losses in flow control and thus preventing throughput degradation of multimedia flows travelling through wireless links. In addition, we refine the well-known TCP throughput model which establishes TCP-friendliness of multimedia flows in a way that the refined model provides more accurate throughput estimate of a TCP flow particularly when the number of TCP flows sharing a bottleneck link increases. Through extensive simulations, we show that the proposed scheme indeed improves the quality of the delivered video significantly while maintaining TCP-friendliness in a wireless environment for the case of wireless MPEG-4 video.     

gTFRC, a TCP friendly QoS-aware rate control for DiffServ Assured Service

This study addresses the end-to-end congestion control support over the DiffServ Assured Forwarding (AF) class. The resulting Assured Service (AS) provides a minimum level of throughput guarantee. In this context, this article describes a new end-to-end mechanism for continuous transfer based on TCP-Friendly Rate Control (TFRC). The proposed approach modifies TFRC to take into account the QoS negotiated. This mechanism, named gTFRC, is able to reach the minimum throughput guarantee whatever the flow's RTT and target rate. Simulation measurements and implementation over a real QoS testbed demonstrate the efficiency of this mechanism either in over-provisioned or exactly-provisioned network. In addition, we show that the >frc mechanism can be used in the same DiffServ/AF class with TCP or TFRC flows.     

Taxonomy and Evaluation of TCP-Friendly Congestion-Control Schemes on Fairness, Aggressiveness, and Responsiveness

Many TCP-friendly congestion control schemes have been proposed to pursue the TCP-equivalence criterion, which states that a TCP-equivalent flow should have the same throughput with TCP if it experiences identical network conditions as TCP. Additionally, the throughput should converge as fast as TCP when the packet-loss conditions change. This study classifies eight typical TCP-friendly schemes according to their underlying policies on fairness, aggressiveness, and responsiveness. The schemes are evaluated to verify whether they meet TCP-equivalence and TCP-equal share. TCP-equal share is a more realistic but more challenging criterion than TCP-equivalence and states that a flow should have the same throughput with TCP if competing with TCP for the same bottleneck. Simulation results indicate that one of the selected schemes, TCP-friendly rate control (TFRC), meets both criteria under more testing scenarios than the others. Additionally, the results under non-periodic losses, low-multiplexing, two-state losses, and bursty losses reveal the causes that bring fault cases to the schemes. Finally, appropriate policies are recommended for an ideal scheme.