Packet is Continued in Later Tcp Segments
TCP and UDP Reactions to Packet Loss
UDP and TCP behave very differently when packets are lost. UDP, by itself, does not react to packet loss, because UDP does not include any mechanism with which to know whether a packet was lost. TCP senders, however, slow down the rate at which they send after recognizing that a packet was lost. Unlike UDP, TCP includes a field in the TCP header to number each TCP
segment (sequence number), and another field used by the receiver to confirm receipt of the packets (acknowledgment number). When a TCP receiver signals that a packet was not received, or if an acknowledgment is not received at all, the TCP sender assumes the packet was lost, and resends the packet. More importantly, the sender also slows down sending data into the network.
TCP uses two separate window sizes that determine the maximum window size of data that can be sent before the sender must stop and wait for an acknowledgment. The first of the two different windowing features of TCP uses the Window field in the TCP header, which is also called the receiver window or the advertised window. The receiver grants the sender the right to send x bytes of data before requiring an acknowledgment, by setting the value x into the Window field of the TCP header. The receiver grants larger and larger windows as time goes on, reaching the point at which the TCP sender never stops sending, with acknowledgments arriving just before a complete window of traffic has been sent.
The second window used by TCP is called the congestion window, or CWND, as defined by RFC 2581. Unlike the advertised window, the congestion window is not communicated between the receiver and sender using fields in the TCP header. Instead, the TCP sender calculates CWND. CWND varies in size much more quickly than does the advertised window, because it was designed to react to congestion in networks.
The TCP sender always uses the lower of the two windows to determine how much data it can send before receiving an acknowledgment. The receiver window is designed to let the receiver prevent the sender from sending data faster than the receiver can process the data. The CWND is designed to let the sender react to network congestion by slowing down its sending rate. It is the variation in the CWND, in reaction to lost packets, which RED relies upon.
To appreciate how RED works, you need to understand the processes by which a TCP sender lowers and increases the CWND. CWND is lowered in response to lost segments. CWND is raised based on the logic defined as the TCP slow start and TCP congestion-avoidance algorithms. In fact, most people use the term "slow start" to describe both features together, in part because they work closely together. The process works like this:
• A TCP sender fails to receive an acknowledgment in time, signifying a possible lost packet.
• The TCP sender sets CWND to the size of a single segment.
• Another variable, called slow start threshold (SSTHRESH) is set to 50 percent of the CWND value before the lost segment.
• After CWND has been lowered, slow start governs how fast the CWND grows up until the CWND has been increased to the value of SSTHRESH.
• After the slow start phase is complete, congestion avoidance governs how fast CWND grows after CWND > SSTHRESH.
Therefore, when a TCP sender fails to receive an acknowledgment, it reduces the CWND to a very low value (one segment size of window). This process is sometimes called slamming the window or slamming the window shut. The sender progressively increases CWND based first on slow start, and then on congestion avoidance. As you go through this text, remember that the TCP windows use a unit of bytes in reality. To make the discussion a little easier, I have listed the windows as a number of segments, which makes the actual numbers more obvious.
Slow start increases CWND by the maximum segment size for every packet for which it receives an acknowledgment. Because TCP receivers may, and typically do, acknowledge segments well before the full window has been sent by the sender, CWND grows at an exponential rate during slow start—a seemingly contradictory concept. Slow start gets its name from the fact that CWND has been set to a very low value at the beginning of the process, meaning it starts slowly, but slow start does cause CWND to grow quickly.
Figure 6-1 outlines the process of no acknowledgment received, slamming CWND to the size of a single segment, and slow start.
Figure 6-1 Slamming the CWND Shut and the Slow Start Process After No Acknowledgment Received
Sender
Receiver
Note: CWND units Are Segment Size in This Example
Sender
Receiver
By increasing CWND when each acknowledgment is received, CWND actually increases at an exponential rate. So, Slow Start might be better called slow start but fast recovery.
Congestion avoidance is the second mechanism that dictates how quickly CWND increases after being lowered. As CWND grows, it begins to approach the original CWND value. If the original packet loss was a result of queue congestion, letting this TCP connection increase back to the original CWND may then induce the same congestion that caused the CWND to be lowered in the first place. Congestion avoidance just reduces the rate of increase for CWND as it approaches the previous CWND value. Once slow start has increased CWND to the value of SSTHRESH, which was set to 50 percent of the original CWND, congestion-avoidance logic replaces the slow start logic for increasing CWND. Congestion avoidance uses a formula that allows CWND to grow more slowly, essentially at a linear rate.
Figure 6-2 shows a graph of CWND with just slow start, and with slow start and congestion avoidance, after the sender times out waiting for an acknowledgment.
Figure 6-2 Graphs of CWND with Slow Start and Congestion Avoidance
CWND
CWND
Before Congestion
1 Segment__
Size
Figure 6-2 Graphs of CWND with Slow Start and Congestion Avoidance
CWND
Before Congestion
1 Segment__
Size
Time
Slow Start Only
Time
Slow Start Only
CWND>SSthresh
Slow Start and Congestion Avoidance
Many people do not realize that the slow start process consists of a combination of the slow start algorithm and the congestion-avoidance algorithm. With slow start, CWND is lowered, but it grows quickly. With congestion avoidance, the CWND value grows more slowly as it approaches the previous CWND value.
In summary, UDP and TCP react to packet loss in the following ways:
• UDP senders do not reduce or increase sending rates as a result of lost packets.
• TCP senders do reduce their sending rates as a result of lost packets.
• TCP senders decide to use either the receiver window or the CWND, based on whichever is smaller at the time.
• TCP slow start and congestion avoidance dictate how fast the CWND rises after the window was lowered due to packet loss.
NOTE Depending on the circumstances, TCP sometimes halves CWND in reaction to lost packets, and in some cases it lowers CWND to one segment size, as was described in this first section. The more severe reaction of reducing the window to one segment size was shown in this section for a more complete description of slow start and congestion avoidance.
Continue reading here: Tail Drop Global Synchronization and TCP Starvation
Was this article helpful?
Source: https://www.ccexpert.us/traffic-shaping-2/tcp-and-udp-reactions-to-packet-loss.html
0 Response to "Packet is Continued in Later Tcp Segments"
Post a Comment