RFC 2581 (rfc2581) - Page 1 of 14

TCP Congestion Control

Alternative Format: Original Text Document
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Network Working Group                                          M. Allman
Request for Comments: 2581                  NASA Glenn/Sterling Software
Obsoletes: 2001                                                V. Paxson
Category: Standards Track                                   ACIRI / ICSI
                                                              W. Stevens
                                                              Consultant
                                                              April 1999


                         TCP Congestion Control

Status of this Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This document defines TCP's four intertwined congestion control
   algorithms: slow start, congestion avoidance, fast retransmit, and
   fast recovery.  In addition, the document specifies how TCP should
   begin transmission after a relatively long idle period, as well as
   discussing various acknowledgment generation methods.

1. Introduction

   This document specifies four TCP [Pos81] congestion control
   algorithms: slow start, congestion avoidance, fast retransmit and
   fast recovery.  These algorithms were devised in [Jac88] and [Jac90].
   Their use with TCP is standardized in [Bra89].

   This document is an update of [Ste97].  In addition to specifying the
   congestion control algorithms, this document specifies what TCP
   connections should do after a relatively long idle period, as well as
   specifying and clarifying some of the issues pertaining to TCP ACK
   generation.

   Note that [Ste94] provides examples of these algorithms in action and
   [WS95] provides an explanation of the source code for the BSD
   implementation of these algorithms.




Allman, et. al.             Standards Track
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