Testing aggressive TCP configurations

Abstract

It has been recognized in the past that selfish configuration of the TCP congestion avoidance mechanism can lead to aggressive usage of network resources by some packet flows at the cost of other flows. It can be imagined that with multiple selfishly configured TCP connections, a game similar to the prisonerspsila dilemma arises whose strategic equilibria may occur at various levels of network resource utilization, depending on the TCP version and traffic conditions. This paper focuses on the effects of selfish TCP configuration in realistic network environments. Of interest is the impact of selfish TCP configuration in large networks with multiple bottlenecks, and the possibility of configuring TCP so as to avoid being exploited by aggressive packet flows competing for the same resources. Quantitative results are presented based on a special-purpose simulator.