TCP over optical burst-switched networks with controlled burst retransmission

For optical burst-switched (OBS) networks in which TCP is implemented at a higher layer, the loss of bursts can lead to serious degradation of TCP performance. Due to the bufferless nature of OBS, random burst losses may occur, even at low traffic loads. Consequently, these random burst losses may be mistakenly interpreted by the TCP layer as congestion in the network. The TCP sender will then trigger congestion control mechanisms, thereby reducing TCP throughput unnecessarily. In this paper, we introduce a controlled retransmission scheme in which the bursts lost due to contention in the OBS network are retransmitted at the OBS layer. The OBS retransmission scheme can reduce the burst loss probability in the OBS core network. Also, the OBS retransmission scheme can reduce the probability that the TCP layer falsely detects congestion, thereby improving the TCP throughput. We develop an analytical model for evaluating the burst loss probability in an OBS network that uses a retransmission scheme, and we also analyze TCP throughput when the OBS layer implements burst retransmission. We develop a simulation model to validate the analytical results. Simulation and analytical results show that an OBS layer with controlled burst retransmission provides up to two to three orders of magnitude improvement in TCP throughput over an OBS layer without burst retransmission. This significant improvement is primarily because the TCP layer triggers fewer time-outs when the OBS retransmission scheme is used.     

Dropping Policy with Burst Retransmission to Improve the Throughput of TCP Over Optical Burst-switched Networks

A major concern in optical burst-switched (OBS) networks is contention, which occurs when more than one bursts contend for the same data channel at the same time. Due to the bufferless nature of OBS networks, these contentions randomly occur at any degree of congestion in the network. When contention occurs at any core node, the core node drops bursts according to its dropping policy. Burst loss in OBS networks significantly degrades the throughput of TCP sources in the local access networks because current TCP congestion control mechanisms perform a slow start phase mainly due to contention rather than heavy congestion. However, there has not been much study about the impact of burst loss on the performance of TCP over OBS networks. To improve TCP throughput over OBS networks, we first introduce a dropping policy with burst retransmission that retransmits the bursts dropped due to contention, at the ingress node. Then, we extend the dropping policy with burst retransmission to drop a burst that has experienced fewer retransmissions in the event of contention at a core node in order to reduce the number of events that a TCP source enters the slow start phase due to contention. In addition, we propose to limit the number of retransmissions of each burst to prevent severe congestion. For the performance evaluation of the proposed schemes, we provide an analytic throughput model of TCP over OBS networks. Through simulations as well as analytic modeling, it is shown that the proposed dropping policy with burst retransmission can improve TCP throughput over OBS networks compared with an existing dropping policy without burst retransmission.     

A stochastic model for the behavior of multiple TCP NewReno sources over optical burst switching network

This work proposes a stochastic model to characterize the transmission control protocol (TCP) over optical burst switching (OBS) networks which helps to understand the interaction between the congestion control mechanism of TCP and the characteristic bursty losses in the OBS network. We derive the steady-state throughput of a TCP NewReno source by modeling it as a Markov chain and the OBS network as an open queueing network with rejection blocking. We model all the phases in the evolution of TCP congestion window and evaluate the number of packets sent and time spent in different states of TCP. We model the mixed assembly process, burst assembler and disassembler modules, and the core network using queueing theory and compute the burst loss probability and end-to-end delay in the network. We derive expression for the throughput of a TCP source by solving the models developed for the source and the network with a set of fixed-point equations. To evaluate the impact of a burst loss on each TCP flow accurately, we define the burst as a composition of per-flow-bursts (which is a burst of packets from a single source). Analytical and simulation results validate the model and highlight the importance of accounting for individual phases in the evolution of TCP congestion window.     

Reducing the impact of false time out on TCP performance in TCP over OBS networks

Random burst contention losses plague the performance of Optical Burst Switched networks. Such random losses occur even in low load network condition due to the analogous behavior of wavelength and routing algorithms. Since a burst may carry many packets from many TCP sources, its loss can trick the TCP sources to conclude/infer that the underlying (optical) network is congested. Accordingly, TCP reduces sending rate and switches over to either fast retransmission or slow start state. This reaction by TCP is uncalled-for in TCP over OBS networks as the optical network may not be congested during such random burst contention losses. Hence, these losses are to be addressed in order to improve the performance of TCP over OBS networks. Existing work in the literature achieves the above laid objective at the cost of violating the semantics of OBS and/or TCP. Several other works make delay inducing assumptions. In our work, we introduce a new layer, called Adaptation Layer, in between TCP and OBS layers. This layer uses burst retransmission to mitigate the effect of burst loss due to contention on TCP by leveraging the difference between round trip times of TCP and OBS. We achieve our objective with the added advantage of maintaining the semantics of the layers intact.     

Multi-layer loss recovery in TCP over optical burst-switched networks

It is well-known that the bufferless nature of optical burst-switching (OBS) networks cause random burst loss even at low traffic loads. When TCP is used over OBS, these random losses make the TCP sender decrease its congestion window even though the network may not be congested. This results in significant TCP throughput degradation. In this paper, we propose a multi-layer loss-recovery approach with automatic retransmission request (ARQ) and Snoop for OBS networks given that TCP is used at the transport layer. We evaluate the performance of Snoop and ARQ at the lower layer over a hybrid IP-OBS network. Based on the simulation results, the proposed multi-layer hybrid ARQ + Snoop approach outperforms all other approaches even at high loss probability. We developed an analytical model for end-to-end TCP throughput and verified the model with simulation results.     

ROBS:光突发交换的可靠传输机制

提出了一种新型的光突发交换网络结构模型-可靠光突发交换(ROBS).介绍了该模型的网络结构及基本原理,讨论了在光层上引入的TCP的拥塞控制特性与重传机制.仿真结果显示了突发备份时间(lifetime)、负载率的不同对ROBS网络性能造成的影响.     

Performance evaluation of high speed TCP over optical burst switching networks

Study of TCP performance over OBS networks has been an important problem of research lately and it was found that due to the congestion control mechanism of TCP and the inherent bursty losses in the Optical Burst Switching (OBS) network, the throughput of TCP connections degrade. On the other hand, High Speed TCP (HSTCP) was proposed as an alternative to the use of TCP in high bandwidth-delay product networks. HSTCP aggressively increases the congestion window used in TCP, when the available bandwidth is high and decreases the window cautiously in response to a congestion event. In this work, we make a thorough simulation study of HSTCP over OBS networks. While the earlier works in the literature used a linear chain of nodes as the network topology for the simulation, we use the popular 14-node NSFNET topology that represents an arbitrary mesh network in our study. We also study the performance of HSTCP over OBS for different bandwidths of access networks. We use two different cases for simulations where in the first HSTCP connections are routed on disjoint paths while in the second they contend for resources in the network links. These cases of simulations along with the mesh topology help us clearly distinguish between the congestion and contention losses in the OBS network and their effect on HSTCP throughput. For completeness of study, we also simulate TCP traffic over OBS networks in all these cases and compare its throughput with that of HSTCP. We observe that irrespective of the access network bandwidth and the burst loss rate in the network, HSTCP outperforms TCP in terms of the throughput and robustness against multiple burst losses up to the expected theoretical burst loss probability of 10⁻³.     

Normalized Queueing Delay: Congestion Control Jointly Utilizing Delay and Marking

Depending upon the type of feedback that is primarily used as a congestion measure, congestion control methods can be generally classified into two categories: marking/loss-based or delay-based. While both marking and queueing delay provide information about the congestion state of a network, they have been largely treated with separate control strategies. In this paper, we propose the notion of the normalized queueing delay, which serves as a congestion measure by combining both delay and marking information. Utilizing normalized queueing delay (NQD), we propose an approach to congestion control that allows a source to scale its rate dynamically to prevailing network conditions through the use of a time-variant set-point. In ns-2 simulation studies, an NQD-enabled FAST TCP demonstrates a significant link utilization improvement over FAST TCP under certain conditions. In addition, we propose another NQD-based controller D + M TCP (Delay+Marking TCP) that achieves quick convergence to fair and stable rates with nearly full link utilization. Therefore, NQD is a suitable candidate as a congestion measure for practical congestion control.     

光突发交换网络中的传输控制协议性能

光突发交换(OBS)是IP over WDM核心网络采用的交换技术。在OBS网络中,送往同一边缘节点的IP分组汇聚成传输和交换的基本单元———数据突发(DB),DB丢弃会导致大量IP分组丢失,显著影响传输层的性能。文中分析OBS网络的参数对传输控制协议(TCP)吞吐量和时延的影响。仿真结果表明,DB丢包率越高,TCP性能越差。在低丢包率情况下,随着DB长度的增加,TCP吞吐量和端到端时延明显增加,高丢包率情况下则不明显;随着汇聚周期的增加,TCP吞吐量逐渐下降,端到端时延逐渐增加。     

Transport control protocol in optical burst switched networks: issues, solutions, and challenges

Since its advent in 1981, TCP has been subject to a tremendous amount of research effort and enhancements for achieving better performance over various network environments and application scenarios. Due to the transmission characteristics of optical burst switched networks, such as random burst dropping, retro-blocking (i.e., bursts proceeding or delayed from their actual reservation time slot), burstification delay, and burst signaling delay, TCP could be significantly affected if no corresponding countermeasure and enhancement are developed. In this review article we provide a comprehensive survey on reported studies for TCP enhancements over OBS networks in order to mitigate the numerous side effects due to the buffer- less characteristic of burst transmission. Furthermore, we closely analyze TCP behavior over OBS networks with various burst transmission characteristics while highlighting the open challenges that have not yet been extensively tackled or solved.     

TCP Window-Based Flow-Oriented Dynamic Assembly Algorithm for OBS Networks

In transport control protocol (TCP) over optical burst switching (OBS) networks, TCP window size and OBS parameters, including assembly period and burst dropping probability, will impact the network performance. In this paper, a parameter window data dropping probability(WDDP), is defined to analyze the impact of the assembly and the burst loss on the network performance in terms of the round trip time and the throughput. To reduce the WDDP without introducing the extra assembly delay penalty, we propose a novel TCP window based flow-oriented assembly algorithm dynamic assembly period (DAP). In the traditional OBS assembly algorithms, the packets with the same destination and class of service (CoS) are assembled into the same burst, i.e., the packets from different sources will be assembled into one burst. In that case, one burst loss will influence multiple TCP sources. In DAP, the packets from one TCP connection are assembled into bursts, which can avoid the above situation. Through comparing the two consecutive burst lengths, DAP can track the variation of TCP window dynamically and update the assembly period for the next assembly. In addition, the ingress node architecture for the flow-oriented assembly is designed. The performance of DAP is evaluated and compared with that of fixed assembly period (FAP) over a single TCP connection and multiple TCP connections. The results show that DAP performs better than FAP at almost the whole range of burst dropping probability.     

一种改善TCP性能的链路层重传方案

有线网络中TCP拥塞控制机制是建立在网络丢包的基础之上的,所以该机制不能适应无线网络中高误码率造成的无线链路丢包的情况。无线链路层重传技术是改善网络性能因无线信道误码率较高而下降的一项重要措施。文中研究了WCDMA无线网络中链路层重传技术对无线TCP数据传输的影响,比较两种重传方案,通过OPNET仿真技术对其进行仿真比较,得出其中一种更有效的改善TCP传输性能的方案。     

A Novel Congestion Detection Scheme in TCP Over OBS Networks

This paper introduces a novel congestion detection scheme for high-bandwidth TCP flows over optical burst switching (OBS) networks, called statistical additive increase multiplicative decrease (SAIMD). SAIMD maintains and analyzes a number of previous round-trip time (RTTs) at the TCP senders in order to identify the confidence with which a packet loss event is due to network congestion. The confidence is derived by positioning short-term RTT in the spectrum of long-term historical RTTs. The derived confidence corresponding to the packet loss is then taken in the developed policy for TCP congestion window adjustment. We will show through extensive simulation that the proposed scheme can effectively solve the false congestion detection problem and significantly outperform the conventional TCP counterparts without losing fairness. The advantages gained in our scheme are at the expense of introducing more overhead in the SAIMD TCP senders. Based on the proposed congestion control algorithm, a throughput model is formulated, and is further verified by simulation results.      

Congestion window-based adaptive burst assembly for TCP traffic in OBS networks

Burst assembly is one of the key factors affecting the TCP performance in optical burst switching (OBS) networks. When the TCP congestion window is small, the fixed-delay burst assembler waits unnecessarily long, which increases the end-to-end delay and thus decreases the TCP goodput. On the other hand, when the TCP congestion window becomes larger, the fixed-delay burst assembler may unnecessarily generate a large number of small-sized bursts, which increases the overhead and decreases the correlation gain, resulting in a reduction in the TCP goodput. In this paper, we propose adaptive burst assembly algorithms that use the congestion window sizes of TCP flows. Using simulations, we show that the usage of the congestion window size in the burst assembly algorithm significantly improves the TCP goodput (by up to 38.4% on the average and by up to 173.89% for individual flows) compared with the timer-based assembly, even when the timer-based assembler uses the optimum assembly period. It is shown through simulations that even when estimated values of the congestion window size, that are obtained via passive measurements, are used, TCP goodput improvements are still close to the results obtained by using exact values of the congestion window.     

一种改进的TCP over OBS网络拥塞控制策略

首先深入分析了TCP over OBS网络中造成TCP性能下降的各种原因.在此基础上,考虑将近年来提出的GAIMD算法与OBS网络的特点相结合,提出了一种改进的拥塞控制策略.该策略能在一定程度上改善OBS网络由于随机竞争丢包给TCP性能带来的负面影响.     

OBS网络中突发重传和IP包重传的性能比较

文章分别分析了将基于优先级的突发重传和基于分段的IP包重传方式引入光突发交换(OBS)网络后的性能,并对这两个机制进行了分析比较.通过分析比较发现,采用基于优先级的突发重传可以有效地减少重传次数、所需缓存和重传延迟,提高网络吞吐量,是OBS网络中的一种理想的重传选择方案.     

OBS网络中一种基于突发包优先级分割的可控重传方案

在光突发交换(OBS)网络中,突发包会由于竞争OBS核心节点输出端口的有限波长资源而发生冲突。突发包重传能够在一定程度上减少由于突发包在核心节点冲突而导致的数据损失,但重传次数的增加可能会加重网络负荷,反而增加数据丢失率。并且,在多业务存在的OBS网络中,重传方案需要能够实现区分服务以保证网络的服务质量(QoS)。据此,本文提出一种基于突发包优先级分割的可控重传方案,在实施优先级分割的同时,根据网络负荷赋予每次重传不同的概率,并对重传次数加以控制。最后,仿真分析了路径阻塞率和不同优先级业务的字节丢失率(ByLP,byte loss probability)性能。     

A framework of prioritized burst segmentation supporting controlled retransmission in OBS networks

In optical burst switching (OBS) networks, burst contentions in OBS core nodes may cause data loss. To reduce data loss, retransmission scheme has been applied. However, uncontrolled retransmission may increase network load significantly and data loss probability defeating the retransmission purpose. In addition, in a priority traffic existing OBS network, OBS nodes may apply different retransmission mechanisms to priorities bursts for quality-of-service (QoS) support. This study has developed a controlled retransmission scheme for prioritized burst segmentation to support QoS in OBS networks. Unlike previous works in the literature, we have set a different value to retransmission probability at each contention and propose a retransmission analytical model for burst segmentation contention resolution scheme. In addition, we have applied the proposed retransmission scheme to the prioritized burst segmentation for QoS support. We have taken into account the load at each link due to both fresh and retransmitted traffic, and have calculated the path blocking probability and byte loss probability (ByLP) for high-priority and low-priority burst to evaluate network performance. An extensive simulation has been proposed to validate our analytical model.     

A dynamic load-aware congestion control scheme in optical burst switching networks

The most important design goal in Optical Burst Switching (OBS) networks is to reduce burst loss resulting from resource contention. Especially, the higher the congestion degree in the network is, the higher the burst loss rate becomes. The burst loss performance can be improved by employing an appropriate congestion control. In this paper, to actively avoid contentions, we propose a dynamic load-aware congestion control scheme that operates based on the highest (called ‘peak load’) of the loads of all links over the path between each pair of ingress and egress nodes in an OBS network. We also propose an algorithm that dynamically determines a load threshold for adjusting burst sending rate, according to the traffic load in a network. Further, a simple signalling method is developed for our proposed congestion control scheme. The proposed scheme aims to (1) reduce the burst loss rate in OBS networks and (2) maintain reasonable throughput and fairness. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme reduces the burst loss rate significantly, compared to existing OBS protocols (with and without congestion control), while maintaining reasonable throughput and fairness. Simulation results also show that our scheme keeps signalling overhead due to congestion control at a low level.     

TCP-DCR: a novel protocol for tolerating wireless channel errors

This paper presents TCP-DCR, a set of simple modifications to the TCP protocol to improve its robustness to channel errors in wireless networks. TCP-DCR is based on the simple idea of allowing the link-level mechanism to recover the packets lost, due to channel errors, thereby limiting the response of the transport protocol to mostly congestion losses. This is done by delaying the triggering of congestion response algorithms for a small bounded period of time /spl tau/ to allow the link-level retransmissions to recover the loss due to channel errors. If at the end of the delay /spl tau/ the packet is not recovered, then it is treated as a packet lost due to congestion. We analyze TCP-DCR to show that the delay in congestion response does not impact the fairness towards the native implementations of TCP that respond to congestion immediately after receiving three dupacks. We evaluate TCP-DCR through simulations to show that it offers significantly better performance when channel errors contribute more towards packet losses in the network with no or minimal impact on the performance when congestion is the primary cause for packet loss. We also present an analysis to show that the number of flows in the network significantly influences protocol evaluation in the wireless networks.