Extending equation-based congestion control to high-speed and long-distance networks

TCP-friendly rate control (TFRC), an equation-based congestion control protocol, has been a promising alternative to TCP for multimedia streaming applications. However, TFRC using the TCP response function, has the same poor performance as TCP in high-speed and long-distance networks. In this paper, we propose high-speed equation-based rate control (HERC), as an extension of TFRC by replacing the TCP response function with a high-speed response function. HERC could be used for applications, such as high-definition video streaming, and remote collaboration involving high-resolution visualization, which prefer a high-speed and relatively smooth sending rate. The impact of a general high-speed response function on the throughput and smoothness of HERC is studied analytically and verified by using simulation. Our result indicates that by using the response function of a high-speed TCP variant and tuning HERC parameters accordingly, HERC can compete fairly with high-speed TCP flows in the same network, while maintaining the desired smoothness of TFRC.