ACC: Using Active Networking to Enhance Feedback Congestion Control Mechanisms†

Active Congestion Control (ACC) uses Active Networking (AN) technology to make feedback congestion control more responsive to network congestion. Current endto-end feedback congestion control systems detect and relieve congestion only at endpoints. ACC includes programs in each data packet that tell routers how to react to congestion without incurring the round trip delay that reduces feedback’s effectiveness in wide area networks. The congested router also sends the new state of the congestion control algorithm to the endpoints to ensure that the distributed state becomes consistent. We present a model for extending feedback congestion control into an Active Network, apply that model to TCP congestion control, and present simulations that show that the resulting system exhibits up to 18% better throughput than TCP under bursty traffic. In simulations without bursty traffic, the systems behaved comparably.