Background TCP Data Transfer with Inline Network Measurement

Tomoaki TSUGAWA
Go HASEGAWA
Masayuki MURATA

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications   Vol.E89-B    No.8    pp.2152-2160
Publication Date: 2006/08/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1345
DOI: 10.1093/ietcom/e89-b.8.2152
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: PAPER
Category: Internet
Keyword: 
background data transfer,  inline network measurement,  congestion control,  available bandwidth,  TCP (Transmission Control Protocol),  

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Summary: 
In the present paper, ImTCP-bg, a new background TCP data transfer mechanism that uses an inline network measurement technique, is proposed. ImTCP-bg sets the upper limit of the congestion window size of the sender TCP based on the results of the inline network measurement, which measures the available bandwidth of the network path between the sender and receiver hosts. ImTCP-bg can provide background data transfer without affecting the foreground traffic, whereas previous methods cannot avoid network congestion. ImTCP-bg also employs an enhanced RTT-based mechanism so that ImTCP-bg can detect and resolve network congestion, even when reliable measurement results cannot be obtained. The performance of ImTCP-bg is investigated through simulations, and the effectiveness of ImTCP-bg in terms of the degree of interference with foreground traffic and the link bandwidth utilization is also investigated.