RFC 2914 (rfc2914) - Page 1 of 17

Congestion Control Principles

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Network Working Group                                         S. Floyd
Request for Comments: 2914                                       ACIRI
BCP: 41                                                 September 2000
Category: Best Current Practice


                     Congestion Control Principles

Status of this Memo

   This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the
   Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   The goal of this document is to explain the need for congestion
   control in the Internet, and to discuss what constitutes correct
   congestion control.  One specific goal is to illustrate the dangers
   of neglecting to apply proper congestion control.  A second goal is
   to discuss the role of the IETF in standardizing new congestion
   control protocols.

1.  Introduction

   This document draws heavily from earlier RFCs, in some cases
   reproducing entire sections of the text of earlier documents
   [RFC 2309, RFC 2357].  We have also borrowed heavily from earlier
   publications addressing the need for end-to-end congestion control
   [FF99].

2.  Current standards on congestion control

   IETF standards concerning end-to-end congestion control focus either
   on specific protocols (e.g., TCP [RFC 2581], reliable multicast
   protocols [RFC 2357]) or on the syntax and semantics of communications
   between the end nodes and routers about congestion information (e.g.,
   Explicit Congestion Notification [RFC 2481]) or desired quality-of-
   service (diff-serv)).  The role of end-to-end congestion control is
   also discussed in an Informational RFC on "Recommendations on Queue
   Management and Congestion Avoidance in the Internet" [RFC 2309].  RFC
   2309 recommends the deployment of active queue management mechanisms
   in routers, and the continuation of design efforts towards mechanisms




Floyd, ed.               Best Current Practice
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