The Talented and Multifaceted Manager of Internet History: TCP

TCP manages the segmentation of data packets, user data reassembly, and network traffic flow and congestion control. Since IP can reorder datagrams, the TCP protocol cannot immediately determine that gaps in the packet sequence represent actual losses. When a TCP session is idle or packet delivery acknowledgments are lost, TCP detects these packet losses using timeout measurements. The packets retransmission timers are constantly updated using the weighted average of previous round-trip time measurements. Slowed or delayed timeouts slow packet recovery, and early timeouts can cause unnecessary retransmissions. This feature of TCP can cause the bandwidth’s allocated upload and download data rates to differ during network congestion, so the data upload speed may appear slower than the download speed.

The TCP protocol was never designed to describe packet loss as packet loss, rather it assumes that all packet losses are congestion-related. When packet losses are detected, TCP not only retransmits the missing packet but also acts as a router that wants to offload ACK queues, reducing the transmission rate of TCP packets. The TCP protocol also manages how the congestion window opens, which is estimated based on the number of packets that can pass through without causing congestion on the network. New packets only send packets from this window and if the window from which the client is calling to receive packets is open/allowed to receive packets.

The congestion window management behavior of the TCP protocol starts at the first Packet, increases the opening of windows one by one with new packet send acknowledgments, and doubles the packet transmission rate at the end of each round of delivering packets to the client. This behavior of the TCP Protocol is commonly known as TCP`s slow start phase and is based on an exponential increase in round trip times. This slow-onset threshold congestion is set to half the window`s threshold-opening value, the threshold-opening value is reset when the window sends a packet, then the slow-start of TCP repeats three rounds through the client connection until the threshold is reached.

When packet loss stops, the TCP mechanism is free to start opening the larger window. This cumulative effect requires additional time for the session to stabilize and start up normally, so this management of TCP`s threshold congestion results in additional congestion in network traffic.

This complex structure of the TCP protocol shows more chaotic behavior with the deterioration and increase in congestion in overloaded networks. TAYF Teknoloji`s TCP Acceleration solutions have algorithms that act as a savior against TCP`s chaotic network problems.