Mutual Complementarity between Diffusion-Type Flow Control and TCP

SUMMARY In current IP-based networks, the application of windowbased end-to-end flow control, including TCP, to ensure reliable flows is an essential factor. However, since such a flow control is provided by the end hosts, end-to-end control cannot be applied to decision-making in a time-scale shorter than the round-trip delay. We have previously proposed ad iffusion-type flow control mechanism to realize the extremely time sensitive flow control that is required for high-speed networks. In this mechanism, each network node manages its own traffic only on the basis of the local information directly available to it, by using predetermined rules. The implementation of decision-making at each node can lead to optimal performance for the whole network. Our previous studies showed that the mechanism works well, by itself, in high-speed networks. However, to apply this mechanism to actual networks, it needs to be able to coexist with other existing protocols. In this paper, we investigate the performance of diffusion-type flow control coexisting with TCP. We show that diffusiontype flow control can coexist with TCP and the two can be complementary. Then, we show that a combination of both controls achieves higher network performance than TCP alone in high-speed networks.