RED-DTB: A dual token bucket based queue management algorithm

Improving the Quality of Service (QoS) of Internet traffic is widely recognized as a critical issue for the next-generation networks. In this paper, we present a new algorithm for the active queue management, namely RED-DTB. This buffer control technique is used to enforce approximate fairness among a large number of concurrent Internet flows. Like RED (Random Early Detection) algorithm, the RED-DTB mechanism can be deployed to actively respond to the gateway congestion, keep the gateway in a healthy state, and protect the fragile flows from being stolen bandwidth by greedy ones. The algorithm is based on the so-called Dual Token Bucket (DTB) pattern. That is, on the one hand, every flow is rate-limited by its own token bucket, to ensure that it can not consume more than its fair share of bandwidth; On the other hand, to make some compensations to less aggressive flows, such as connections with larger round trip time or smaller sending window, and to gain a relatively higher system utilization coefficient, all flows, depending on their individual behavior, may have a chance to fetch tokens from the public token bucket when they run out of their own share of tokens. The algorithm is analyzed and evaluated by simulations, and is proved to be effective in protecting the gateway buffer and controlling the fair allocation of bandwidth among flows.