HTTP Transfer Latency over SCTP and TCP in Slow Start Phase

Current Web applications use HTTP (hyper text transfer protocol) over TCP (transmission control protocol) to retrieve objects over the Internet. SCTP (stream control transmission protocol) is a recently proposed transport protocol with very similar congestion control mechanisms as TCP, except the initial congestion window during the slow start phase. In this paper, we present an analytical model of object transfer latency during the slow start phase for HTTP over SCTP and compare with the latency of HTTP over TCP. Validation of the model using experimental results, show that the average object transfer latency for HTTP over SCTP during the slow start phase is less than that for HTTP over TCP by 11%.