Performance of TCP applications over ATM networks with ABR and UBR services - a simulation analysis

This paper aims to present a comparative simulation study of the performance of TCP traffic over ATM networks with UBR and ABR services; to identify weaknesses of currently most promising ATM congestion control schemes; and to indicate the requirements for a fairer, simpler and more robust congestion control mechanism. Variety of congestion control schemes under various network configurations and traffic patterns are simulated for a comprehensive analysis. Simulation results show that Early Packet Discard (EPD) wastes buffer capacity and has no provision for fairness, Intelligent Marking [K.Y. Siu, H.Y. Tzeng, Computer Communication Review 24 (5) (1995) 81–106] does not provide adequate fairness among competitive connections, and ERICA 1 [R. Jain, S. Kalyanaraman, Y. Goyal, S. Fahmy, R. Viswanathan, ERICA switch algorithm: a complete description, ATM Forum Contribution 96-1172, 1996] is too restrictive and unnecessarily complicated. The paper also indicates that TCP flow control and ATM congestion control do not cooperate well when buffer overflows and retransmission occurs, necessitating further control mechanisms for improving performance. q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.