1.

Principles of Congestion Control

What is Congestion?

Congestion happens when a network gets too much traffic — more than it can handle — and it
causes delays, packet loss, or retransmissions.

Example:
Imagine 50 students try to access the same online test server at the same time. The network slows
down, pages don’t load, and some requests are lost. This is network congestion.

Key Principles:

• Monitor the Network Load:

The network continuously checks how much traffic is flowing. If it notices traffic
increasing beyond a safe limit, it prepares to slow things down.

Example:
A college router checks how much data is coming from students’ devices. If traffic spikes
during class, it knows congestion might happen soon.

• Avoid Overload:
Instead of sending a large amount of data immediately, the sender starts slow and
increases speed only when it's safe.

Example:
When you upload a file to Google Drive, the speed increases gradually. If the network is
busy, the upload stays slow to avoid making things worse.

• Recover from Congestion:

If congestion occurs, the sender reduces the sending rate, giving the network time to
recover.

Example:
During a Zoom class, if voice or video becomes choppy, the app reduces video quality to
lower data usage and ease the network load.

pg. 1 TCP and Congestion Control

2. Approaches to Congestion Control
a) Open-Loop Congestion Control (Prevention)

• Traffic Shaping (e.g., Leaky Bucket):

Controls how fast data enters the network so sudden traffic spikes don’t overload routers.

Example:
A printer in a lab prints one document at a time. Even if 10 students click "Print" at once,
the printer handles them one by one.

• Admission Control:
The network may reject new connections if it's already too full.

Example:
A video conferencing tool won’t let new students join a class if the server is overloaded,
preventing call drops.

• Resource Reservation:
Reserves bandwidth for important data (like voice calls) so they aren’t affected by other
traffic.

Example:
In a hospital’s network, online patient monitoring tools get reserved bandwidth to ensure
doctors get real-time updates without delay.

b) Closed-Loop Congestion Control (Reaction)

• Retransmission Control:
If a packet is lost, it’s only resent after a timeout to avoid adding more pressure on the
network.

Example:
While downloading a YouTube video, if one part is missing, YouTube waits briefly, then
resends just that part.

• Window Adjustment:
The sender adjusts the number of packets it can send without waiting for ACKs.

Example:
A student downloads a course video. If the network is clear, more packets are sent at
once. If it’s busy, only a few go at a time.

• Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN):

Routers don’t drop packets but mark them to warn the sender about congestion.

pg. 2 TCP and Congestion Control

 Example:
Like a traffic light turning orange before red, a router tells the sender, “Slow down — it’s
getting crowded here.”

3. TCP Congestion Control Algorithms

1. Slow Start

• TCP begins sending just 1 segment and doubles the amount with each successful round.

Example:
You send a photo via WhatsApp. It starts slowly (1 segment), then 2, then 4, then 8,
increasing speed only if the network handles it.

2. Congestion Avoidance

• Once the data reaches a certain limit, TCP increases speed slowly (linearly), not
exponentially.

Example:
If your internet was fine during a video upload, but now it’s evening and more users are
online, the app increases upload speed slowly to stay safe.

3. Fast Retransmit

• Instead of waiting for a timeout, TCP detects loss when it receives three duplicate ACKs
and resends the lost packet immediately.

Example:
You're watching Netflix, and the video suddenly freezes. The app doesn’t wait long — it
quickly resends the missing chunk and continues playing.

4. Fast Recovery

• After fast retransmit, TCP cuts the congestion window in half, not back to 1. This lets
data keep flowing, but at a safer pace.

Example:
After a hiccup in your Microsoft Teams call, the system doesn’t restart everything — it
just slows down and keeps going smoothly.

4. TCP: Connection-Oriented Transport

a) TCP Segment Structure (With Simple Definitions)

pg. 3 TCP and Congestion Control

 Field Meaning Example
Source Port Port number of the sender Your browser sends data from
(browser/app) port 5000
Destination Port Port number of the receiver (web Server listens on port 80 (HTTP)
server)
Sequence Number of the first byte in the data Helps keep track of data order
Number sent
ACK Number Tells what byte receiver expects next If it received 1000 bytes, ACK =
1001
Flags Control bits like SYN (start), FIN SYN for connection start
(end), ACK
Window Size Number of bytes the receiver can Flow control buffer
accept
Checksum Error check to make sure data is Wrong checksum = data is
correct discarded

b) Reliable Data Transfer in TCP

• Sequencing:
Breaks data into small packets and numbers them for order.

Example:
Sending an email, your message is broken into 5 parts: packet 1 to 5. The receiver
arranges them back in order even if they arrive out of sequence.

• Acknowledgments (ACKs):
The receiver sends an ACK to confirm it got the data.

Example:
You send a document on Google Docs. When the server receives part 1, it says “ACK 2,”
meaning it’s ready for the second part.

• Timeout and Retransmission:

If no ACK comes back in time, the sender resends that part.

Example:
If you send a resume via a job portal and the server doesn’t respond in 2 seconds, your
computer sends it again.

• Checksum:
Checks for data errors during transfer.

Example:
If part of your online exam answer gets corrupted during upload, the checksum fails and
the server asks for that part again.

pg. 4 TCP and Congestion Control

c) Flow Control in TCP

Flow control prevents the sender from sending too much data if the receiver is slow or busy.

• Receiver Advertises Window Size:

The receiver tells how much space it has.

Example:
Your mobile phone says, “I can receive 2000 bytes right now,” so the server sends only
that much.

• Sender Respects It:

The sender does not send more than the advertised amount.

Example:
During a Zoom call, your friend’s old laptop says it can only take 1000 bytes at a time —
the server adjusts accordingly.

• Zero Window:
If the receiver is full, it advertises a window size of 0 — asking the sender to pause.

Example:
Your laptop is installing updates and gets slow. It tells websites, “Hold on! I can't take
more data now.

pg. 5 TCP and Congestion Control