Patent ID: 7925775
Filing Date: 2011-04-12
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A system for controlling network congestion, comprising: a device configured for communicating a sequence of packets over a network; means, within said device, for sending packets of a sequence in a back-to-back nature, wherein back-to-back packets are packets which are communicated, with no delay between the back of one packet and beginning of the next packet, one after another in a single burst within the sequence of packets; and means, within said device, for explicitly indicating which packets within said sequence of packets are being sent back-to-back, and for setting congestion control parameters for a sender in response to estimating network bandwidth based on the receipt, by a receiver, of explicit back-to-back packet indications that are placed within the modified header, by the sender, of the back-to-back packets; means for the receiver to control sender packet train size in response to bandwidth estimations by changing a rate value m at which receipt acknowledgements (ACKs) are communicated from the receiver to said sender, and in response to which the sender transmits a corresponding number of packets back-to-back; wherein said rate value m is the rate at which acknowledgements are communicated from the receiver to control the number of back-to-back packets to be sent by the sender; and wherein said rate value m is given as the number of back-to-back packets to be sent by the sender for each said acknowledgment (ACK) sent by the receiver; wherein said receiver sends an acknowledgement (ACK) for every given number of data packet arrivals according to the rate of acknowledgements, rate value m, and in response to the rate of acknowledgements the sender transmits a given number of data packets back-to-back, the given number of packets to be sent back-to-back being determined by rate at which the sender receives the acknowledgements.