Supporting delay-intolerant applications

Reliable transport protocols that offer low per-packet delays are becoming increasingly important, particularly for critical infrastructure services. Forward error correction (FEC) protocols have been used to reduce per-packet delays, but are only reliable if the error rate remains below a threshold. In this paper we present a reliable FEC protocol that combines retransmissions and FEC in a way that minimizes per-packet delays. We compute a cumulative distribution function(CDF) that helps receivers decide when to send a retransmission request to reduce per-packet delays. The result is a reliable FEC protocol with low per-packet delays capable of reacting to unexpected network congestion. A prototype implementation of the protocol is currently being developed.