Design a congestion controller based on sliding mode variable structure control

As an effective mechanism acting on the intermediate nodes to support end-to-end congestion control, Active Queue Management (AQM) takes a trade-off between link utilization and delay experienced by data packets. Most existing AQM algorithms are heuristic, and lack a systematic and theoretical design and analysis approach. From the viewpoint of control theory, the AQM system can be regarded as a typical regulating system. Although the PI controller for AQM outperforms the RED algorithm, the mismatches in a simplified TCP flow model inevitably degrade the performance of controller designed using classical control theory. In this paper, a robust controller for AQM is developed based on Sliding Mode Variable Structure Control (SMVS). Because it is insensitive to noise and variance of parameters, it is very suitable for time-varying network systems. The principles and design of the SMVS controller are presented in detail. The integrated performance is evaluated using ns simulations. The results show that the SMVS is responsive and robust against disturbance. At the same time, a complete comparison between SMVS controller and PI controller is made. The conclusion is that both transient and steady performance of the SMVS controller is superior to those of PI controller, thus the SMVS controller can readily achieve to the AQM objectives.

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