Performance of TCP traffic and ABR congestion control mechanisms

This paper presents a performance investigation of TCP traffic carried over ATM networks when the available bit rate (ABR) congestion control mechanism is exercised at the ATM layer. Two ABR schemes are investigated; the EFCI marking scheme and the relative rate marking scheme. The joint effect of the ABR mechanism with the early packet discard (EPD) mechanism is also considered. The focus of this study is to evaluate these schemes based on the effective throughput experienced by end users, taking the effect of retransmissions into account. Simulation results are obtained for a multihop switch configuration. Various aspects regarding the synergy of the TCP and ABR flow control mechanisms are presented. © 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.