Patent ID: 7821924

Claim:
A method for reducing timeouts across a communications network, said communications network having a plurality of communications links which exchange packets in accordance with a transmission control protocol (TCP) having a timeout mechanism triggered by round-trip packet delays that exceed a threshold, RTO, that is adapted based on measured packet round-trip times, said method comprising the steps of: monitoring said packets exchanged across a particular one communications link of said plurality of communications links, said one communications link connecting a TCP receiver and a TCP sender; injecting, at a network element along said communications link, a delay into said TCP packets being exchanged across said communications link, said delay being injected at a fixed time interval and having a fixed length; selecting a set of tunable parameters comprising at least said delay injection time interval and a value D 0 of said injected delay length, said parameter selection being made so as to increase RTO by an amount effective to reduce the likelihood of TCP timeouts experienced by said TCP sender and TCP receiver on said monitored communications link while increasing an achieved TCP-level throughput; wherein the delay injecting is made as a function of the selected delay injection time interval and the selected value D 0 of injected delay length; and wherein said delay injecting occurs without modification of said TCP protocol.