Tag: Congestion Control in Transport Layer

TCP Congestion Control | Practice Problems

Computer Networks

TCP Congestion Control-

 

Before you go through this article, make sure that you have gone through the previous article on TCP Congestion Control.

 

TCP congestion control policy consists of following three phases-

 

 

  1. Slow Start
  2. Congestion Avoidance
  3. Congestion Detection

 

In this article, we will discuss practice problems on TCP Congestion Control.

 

PRACTICE PROBLEMS BASED ON TCP CONGESTION CONTROL-

 

Problem-01:

 

The growth of congestion window takes place-

  1. Infinitely
  2. Up to Threshold
  3. Up to the size of receiver’s window
  4. Up to timeout

 

Solution-

 

Option (C) is correct.

 

Problem-02:

 

Consider the effect of using slow start on a line with a 10 msec RTT and no congestion. The receiver window is 24 KB and the maximum segment size is 2 KB. How long does it take before the first full window can be sent?

 

Solution-

 

Given-

  • Receiver window size = 24 KB
  • Maximum Segment Size = 2 KB
  • RTT = 10 msec

 

Receiver Window Size-

 

Receiver window size in terms of MSS

= Receiver window size / Size of 1 MSS

= 24 KB / 2 KB

= 12 MSS

 

Slow Start Threshold-

 

Slow start Threshold

= Receiver window size / 2

= 12 MSS / 2

= 6 MSS

 

Slow Start Phase-

 

  • Window size at the start of 1st transmission = 1 MSS
  • Window size at the start of 2nd transmission = 2 MSS
  • Window size at the start of 3rd transmission = 4 MSS
  • Window size at the start of 4th transmission = 6 MSS

 

Since the threshold is reached, so it marks the end of slow start phase.

Now, congestion avoidance phase begins.

 

Congestion Avoidance Phase-

 

  • Window size at the start of 5th transmission = 7 MSS
  • Window size at the start of 6th transmission = 8 MSS
  • Window size at the start of 7th transmission = 9 MSS
  • Window size at the start of 8th transmission = 10 MSS
  • Window size at the start of 9th transmission = 11 MSS
  • Window size at the start of 10th transmission = 12 MSS

 

From here,

  • Window size at the end of 9th transmission or at the start of 10th transmission is 12 MSS.
  • Thus, 9 RTT’s will be taken before the first full window can be sent.

 

So,

Time taken before the first full window is sent

= 9 RTT’s

= 9 x 10 msec

= 90 msec

 

Problem-03:

 

Consider an instance of TCP’s Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease (AIMD) algorithm where the window size at the start of slow start phase is 2 MSS and the threshold at the start of first transmission is 8 MSS. Assume that a time out occurs during the fifth transmission. Find the congestion window size at the end of tenth transmission.

  1. 8 MSS
  2. 14 MSS
  3. 7 MSS
  4. 12 MSS

 

Solution-

 

Given-

  • Window size at the start of slow start phase = 2 MSS
  • Threshold at the start of first transmission = 8 MSS
  • Time out occurs during 5th transmission

 

Slow Start Phase-

 

  • Window size at the start of 1st transmission = 2 MSS
  • Window size at the start of 2nd transmission = 4 MSS
  • Window size at the start of 3rd transmission = 8 MSS

 

Since the threshold is reached, so it marks the end of slow start phase.

Now, congestion avoidance phase begins.

 

Congestion Avoidance Phase-

 

  • Window size at the start of 4th transmission = 9 MSS
  • Window size at the start of 5th transmission = 10 MSS

 

It is given that time out occurs during 5th transmission.

 

TCP reacts by-

  • Setting the slow start threshold to half of the current congestion window size.
  • Decreasing the congestion window size to 2 MSS (Given value is used).
  • Resuming the slow start phase.

 

So now,

  • Slow start threshold = 10 MSS / 2 = 5 MSS
  • Congestion window size = 2 MSS

 

Slow Start Phase-

 

  • Window size at the start of 6th transmission = 2 MSS
  • Window size at the start of 7th transmission = 4 MSS
  • Window size at the start of 8th transmission = 5 MSS

 

Since the threshold is reached, so it marks the end of slow start phase.

Now, congestion avoidance phase begins.

 

Congestion Avoidance Phase-

 

  • Window size at the start of 9th transmission = 6 MSS
  • Window size at the start of 10th transmission = 7 MSS
  • Window size at the start of 11th transmission = 8 MSS

 

From here,

Window size at the end of 10th transmission

= Window size at the start of 11th transmission

= 8 MSS

 

Thus, Option (A) is correct.

 

Problem-04:

 

Suppose that the TCP congestion window is set to 18 KB and a time out occurs. How big will the window be if the next four transmission bursts are all successful? Assume that the MSS is 1 KB.

 

Solution-

 

Congestion Window Size-

 

Congestion window size in terms of MSS

= 18 KB / Size of 1 MSS

= 18 KB / 1 KB

= 18 MSS

 

Reaction Of TCP On Time Out-

 

TCP reacts by-

  • Setting the slow start threshold to half of the current congestion window size.
  • Decreasing the congestion window size to 1 MSS.
  • Resuming the slow start phase.

 

So now,

  • Slow start threshold = 18 MSS / 2 = 9 MSS
  • Congestion window size = 1 MSS

 

Slow Start Phase-

 

  • Window size at the start of 1st transmission = 1 MSS
  • Window size at the start of 2nd transmission = 2 MSS
  • Window size at the start of 3rd transmission = 4 MSS
  • Window size at the start of 4th transmission = 8 MSS
  • Window size at the start of 5th transmission = 9 MSS

 

Thus, after 4 successful transmissions, window size will be 9 MSS or 9 KB.

 

Problem-05:

 

On a TCP connection, current congestion window size is 4 KB. The window advertised by the receiver is 6 KB. The last byte sent by the sender is 10240 and the last byte acknowledged by the receiver is 8192.

 

Part-01:

 

The current window size at the sender is ____.

  1. 2048 B
  2. 4096 B
  3. 6144 B
  4. 8192 B

 

Part-02:

 

The amount of free space in the sender window is ____.

  1. 2048 B
  2. 4096 B
  3. 6144 B
  4. 8192 B

 

Solution-

 

Part-01:

 

Sender window size

= min (Congestion window size, Receiver window size)

= min(4KB , 6KB)

= 4 KB

= 4096 B

Thus, Option (B) is correct.

 

Part-02:

 

Given-

  • Last byte acknowledged by the receiver = 8192
  • Last byte sent by the sender = 10240

 

From here,

  • It means bytes from 8193 to 10240 are still present in the sender’s window.
  • These bytes are waiting for their acknowledgement.
  • Total bytes present in sender’s window = 10240 – 8193 + 1 = 2048 bytes.

 

From here,

Amount of free space in sender’s window currently

= 4096 bytes – 2048 bytes

= 2048 bytes

 

This indicates that half of the sender’s window is currently empty.

Thus, Option (A) is correct.

 

Next Article- TCP Timers

 

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TCP Congestion Control | Congestion in Network

Computer Networks

Congestion in Network-

 

Congestion refers to a network state where-

The message traffic becomes so heavy that it slows down the network response time.

 

  • Congestion is an important issue that can arise in Packet Switched Network.
  • Congestion leads to the loss of packets in transit.
  • So, it is necessary to control the congestion in network.
  • It is not possible to completely avoid the congestion.

 

Congestion Control-

 

Congestion control refers to techniques and mechanisms that can-

  • Either prevent congestion before it happens
  • Or remove congestion after it has happened

 

Now, let us discuss how congestion is handled at TCP.

 

TCP Congestion Control-

 

TCP reacts to congestion by reducing the sender window size.

 

The size of the sender window is determined by the following two factors-

  1. Receiver window size
  2. Congestion window size

 

1. Receiver Window Size-

 

Receiver window size is an advertisement of-

“How much data (in bytes) the receiver can receive without acknowledgement?”

 

  • Sender should not send data greater than receiver window size.
  • Otherwise, it leads to dropping the TCP segments which causes TCP Retransmission.
  • So, sender should always send data less than or equal to receiver window size.
  • Receiver dictates its window size to the sender through TCP Header.

 

2. Congestion Window-

 

  • Sender should not send data greater than congestion window size.
  • Otherwise, it leads to dropping the TCP segments which causes TCP Retransmission.
  • So, sender should always send data less than or equal to congestion window size.
  • Different variants of TCP use different approaches to calculate the size of congestion window.
  • Congestion window is known only to the sender and is not sent over the links.

 

So, always-

 

Sender window size = Minimum (Receiver window size, Congestion window size)

 

TCP Congestion Policy-

 

TCP’s general policy for handling congestion consists of following three phases-

 

 

  1. Slow Start
  2. Congestion Avoidance
  3. Congestion Detection

 

1. Slow Start Phase-

 

  • Initially, sender sets congestion window size = Maximum Segment Size (1 MSS).
  • After receiving each acknowledgment, sender increases the congestion window size by 1 MSS.
  • In this phase, the size of congestion window increases exponentially.

 

The followed formula is-

 

Congestion window size = Congestion window size + Maximum segment size

 

This is shown below-

 

 

  • After 1 round trip time, congestion window size = (2)1 = 2 MSS
  • After 2 round trip time, congestion window size = (2)2 = 4 MSS
  • After 3 round trip time, congestion window size = (2)3 = 8 MSS and so on.

 

This phase continues until the congestion window size reaches the slow start threshold.

 

Threshold

= Maximum number of TCP segments that receiver window can accommodate / 2

= (Receiver window size / Maximum Segment Size) / 2

 

2. Congestion Avoidance Phase-

 

After reaching the threshold,

  • Sender increases the congestion window size linearly to avoid the congestion.
  • On receiving each acknowledgement, sender increments the congestion window size by 1.

 

The followed formula is-

 

Congestion window size = Congestion window size + 1

 

This phase continues until the congestion window size becomes equal to the receiver window size.

 

 

3. Congestion Detection Phase-

 

When sender detects the loss of segments, it reacts in different ways depending on how the loss is detected-

 

Case-01: Detection On Time Out-

 

  • Time Out Timer expires before receiving the acknowledgement for a segment.
  • This case suggests the stronger possibility of congestion in the network.
  • There are chances that a segment has been dropped in the network.

 

Reaction-

 

In this case, sender reacts by-

  • Setting the slow start threshold to half of the current congestion window size.
  • Decreasing the congestion window size to 1 MSS.
  • Resuming the slow start phase.

 

Case-02: Detection On Receiving 3 Duplicate Acknowledgements-

 

  • Sender receives 3 duplicate acknowledgements for a segment.
  • This case suggests the weaker possibility of congestion in the network.
  • There are chances that a segment has been dropped but few segments sent later may have reached.

 

Reaction-

 

In this case, sender reacts by-

  • Setting the slow start threshold to half of the current congestion window size.
  • Decreasing the congestion window size to slow start threshold.
  • Resuming the congestion avoidance phase.

 

Next Article- Practice Problems On TCP Congestion Control

 

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