Congestion Control

Techniques
Unit -3
Congestion Control Techniques

Congestion and Congestion Control

 Congestion, in the context of networks, refers to a

network state where a hop or link carries so much
data that it may deteriorate network service
quality, resulting in queuing delay, frame or data
packet loss and the blocking of new connections.

 Congestion in a network may occur if the load on the

network—the number of packets sent to the network—
is greater than the capacity of the network—the
number of packets a network can handle. Then the
performance of the network degrades.

 Congestion control refers to the mechanisms and

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techniques to control the congestion and keep the load

 Congestion Control Techniques

Data Traffic

The main focus of congestion control and quality

of service is data traffic. In congestion control we
try to avoid traffic congestion. In quality of
service, we try to create an appropriate
environment for the traffic. So, before talking
about congestion control and quality of service,
we discuss the data traffic itself.
Topics discussed in this section
 Traffic Descriptor
 Traffic Profiles

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Congestion Control Techniques

Traffic descriptors

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Three traffic profiles

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Congestion - the situation in which too many packets are present in the subnet

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Congestion - the situation in which too many packets are present in the subnet

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Queues in a router

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Packet delay and throughput as functions of load

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Causes of Congestion

When too many packets are present in (a part

of) the subnet, performance degrades. This
situation is called congestion.

 Low bandwidth lines.

 High stream of packets sent from one of
the sender.
 Insufficient memory.
 High memory of Routers also add to
congestion as
becomes un manageable and un
accessible. (Nagle,
1987).
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Congestion Control

Congestion control has to do with making sure

the subnet is able to carry the offered traffic.

Three Step approach to apply congestion control:

1. Monitor the system: detect when and where
congestion occurs.
2. Pass information to where action can be taken.
3. Adjust system operation to correct the problem.

How to monitor the subnet for congestion.

1) Percentage of all packets discarded for lack of
buffer space,
2) Average queue lengths,
3) Number of packets that time out and are
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retransmitted,
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4) Average packet delay

5) Standard deviation of packet delay (jitter
Congestion Control Techniques
Congestion Control versus Flow Control

Flow control –
Controls hop-to-hop traffic between sender and
receiver – e.g., a fast host sending to a slow host

Congestion Control –
Controls the traffic throughout the network

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Classification of Congestion Control

1. Open Loop Solution:

i. It prevent the congestion before happening.
ii. Deciding when to disregard packets and which ones.
iii. Deciding when to accept new traffic.
iv. Attempt to prevent problems rather than correct them.
v. Does not utilize runtime feedback from the system

2. Close Loop Solution:

vi. Uses feedback (measurements of system performance)
to make corrections at runtime.
vii. Monitor the system to detect when and where
congestion occurs.
viii.Pass this information to places where action can be
taken.
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ix. Adjust system operation to correct the problem.

Congestion Control Techniques
Classification of Congestion Control

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Open Loop Solution:-

1. Retransmission Policy :
It is the policy in which retransmission of the packets are taken care. If the
sender feels that a sent packet is lost or corrupted, the packet needs to be
retransmitted. This transmission may increase the congestion in the
network. To prevent congestion, retransmission timers must be designed to
prevent congestion and also able to optimize efficiency.

2. Window Policy :
The type of window at the sender side may also affect the congestion.
Several packets in the Go-back-n window are resent, although some
packets may be received successfully at the receiver side. This duplication
may increase the congestion in the network and making it worse. Therefore,
Selective repeat window should be adopted as it sends the specific
packet that may have been lost.
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Open Loop Solution:-

3. Acknowledgment Policy :
Since acknowledgement are also the part of the load in network, the
acknowledgment policy imposed by the receiver may also affect congestion.
Several approaches can be used to prevent congestion related to
acknowledgment. The receiver should send acknowledgement for N
packets rather than sending acknowledgement for a single packet. The
receiver should send a acknowledgment only if it has to sent a packet or a
timer expires.

4. Discarding Policy :
A good discarding policy adopted by the routers is that the routers may
prevent congestion and at the same time partially discards the
corrupted or less sensitive package and also able to maintain the
quality of a message.
In case of audio file transmission, routers can discard less
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packets to prevent congestion and also maintain the quality of the audio
Congestion Control Techniques

Open Loop Solution:-

5. Admission Policy :
In admission policy a mechanism should be used to prevent congestion.
Switches in a flow should first check the resource requirement of a
network flow before transmitting it further. If there is a chance of a
congestion or there is a congestion in the network, router should deny
establishing a virtual network connection to prevent further congestion.

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Close Loop Solution
1. Warning Bit or Backpressure

 A special bit in the packet header is set by the

router to warn the source when congestion is
detected.
 The bit is copied and piggy-backed on the ACK and
sent to the sender.
 The sender monitors the number of ACK packets it
receives with the warning bit set and adjusts its
transmission rate accordingly.

[Backpressure method for alleviating

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congestion]
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Close Loop Solution
2. Choke Packets

• The router sends a choke packet back to the source host, giving it the
destination found on the path.
• The original packet is tagged (a header bit is turned on) so that it will
not generate any more choke packets farther along the path and is
then forwarded in the usual way.

• When the source host gets the choke packet, it is required to reduce
the traffic sent to the specified destination by X percent.
• Reduction from 25% to 50% to 75% and so on.
• Router maintains threshold value. And based on it gives
• Mild Warning
• Stern Warning
• Ultimatum.

• Variation: Use queue length or buffers instead of line utilization as

trigger signal. This will reduce traffic. Chocks also increase traffic.
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Choke Packets(Closed Loop)

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Close Loop Solution
3. Implicit Signaling

 In implicit signaling, there is no communication

between the congested nodes and the source.

 The source guesses that there is congestion in a

network.

 For example when sender sends several packets and

there is no acknowledgment for a while, one
assumption is that there is a congestion.

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 Congestion Control Techniques
Close Loop Solution
4. Explicit Signaling

In explicit signaling, if a node experiences congestion it can explicitly

sends a packet to the source or destination to inform about congestion. The
difference between choke packet and explicit signaling is that the signal is
included in the packets that carry data rather than creating different packet
as in case of choke packet technique.

Explicit signaling can occur in either forward or backward

direction.

1.Forward Signaling : In forward signaling signal is sent in the

direction of the congestion. The destination is warned about
congestion. The receiver in this case adopt policies to prevent further
congestion.
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2.Backward Signaling : In backward signaling signal is sent in the

opposite direction of the congestion. The source is warned about
Congestion Control Techniques
Congestion Control Mechanism in Frame Relay

1. Forward-explicit congestion notification

(FECN)
Frame Relay
2. Backward-explicit congestion notification
• High-performance
(BECN) WAN protocol
• Operates at the physical and data link layers
• Originally designed for use across ISDN interfaces
• An example:- Packet-Switched Technology
• Described as a streamlined version of X.25

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Frame Relay Formats

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Frame Relay Formats Continue……..

i. Flags:-(1 byte) Indicates the beginning and ending of frame..

ii. Information:- (Variable Size) Contains encapsulated data

for upper layers. Variable length of frame can be upto 16000
octets.

iii. Address( 2 byte):- The address area, which is 2 bytes in

length, is comprised of 10 bits representing the actual
circuit identifier and 6 bits(Frame Header) of fields
related to congestion management. This identifier
commonly is referred to as the data-link connection identifier
(DLCI).
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iv. FCS(2 byte):- Frame Check Sequence ensures the integrity

 Congestion Control Techniques
Frame Relay Formats Continue……..

Address—Contains the following information:

1. DLCI (10 bits):- data-link connection identifier:- This value represents the
virtual connection
between the DTE device and the switch. Relay virtual circuits are identified by
datalink
connection identifiers (DLCIs).

2. Extended Address (EA, 2 bits):- EA is the extended DLCI address (23 bits
address). 10 bits DLCI field only permits DLCI values between 16 and 1007. But
with EA, DLCI supports values between
16 and 8388607. Basically it was the solution of range of addresses.

3. Command Response(C/R, 1 bit):-The command/response bit in the header is

provided to allow the
upper layers to identify a frame as either a command or response. DL-layer
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starts
communication by initiating a command to upper layers which is followed by
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Frame Relay Formats Continue……..

4. Congestion Control( 3 bits): FECN, BECN, DE.

These bits are used to inform the terminal equipment's about the
congestion in the
network. Based on this information , higher OSI layers decide the flow
control and take
actions depending upon the warning.

• FECN (1 bit):- If the network is congested, DCE devices (switches) set the
value of the frames’ FECN bit to 1. When the frames reach the destination DTE
device, the Address field (with the FECN bit set) indicates that the frame
experienced congestion in the path from source to destination.

• BECN(1 bit):- DCE devices set the value of the BECN bit to 1 in frames
traveling in the opposite direction of frames with their FECN bit set.

• Discard eligibility (DE,1 bit):- The Discard Eligibility (DE) bit is used to
indicate that a frame has lower importance than other frames. DTE06/01/2025
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set the value of the DE bit of a frame to 1 to indicate that the frame has lower
importance than other frames.
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FECN(Forward-explicit congestion notification)

If the source terminal in a communications circuit generates

frequent FECN bits, it indicates that the available network
bandwidth (at that time) is not as great as can be supported by the
destination terminal. Likewise, if the destination generates
frequent BECN bits, it means the available network bandwidth (at
that time)Computer
is not as great as can be supported by the source.
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BECN(Backward-explicit congestion notification)

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Four Cases of Congestion

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Case Study:-

When the frame switch detects network congestion it sets the FECN bit
in a frame to the receiving router. Once the receiving router receives
that frame, and sends a frame back to the other router, the Frame
switch will remember that the FECN bit was set, which will set the
FECN
For bit in this frame, which tells the original sender "SLOW DOWN."
example:
R1 sends a frame to FR Switch destinated for R2
Frame switch detects congestion, sets FECN bit.

Frame is forwarded to R2
R2 sends a frame to the Frame switch destined for R1
Frame switch sets BECN bit
Frame is forwarded to R1

R1 knows to slow down.

A router can also detect that a particular frame has experience congestion and set the
FECN bit. It's more common that we see the switch set the FECN bit though.
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Numerical 1:- Case 1

The address field of a Frame Relay frame is 1011000000010000. Is there

any congestion
in the forward direction? Is there any congestion in the backward direction?
Solution:-

Given the bit pattern is 1011000000010000. From the above

diagram of frame relay format the FECN bit is 0 and the BECN bit is
0. There is no congestion in both the forward direction and in the
backward direction.
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Numerical 2:- Case 2

The address field of a Frame Relay frame is 1011000000011011. Is there

any congestion
in the forward direction? Is there any congestion in the backward direction?
Solution:-

Given the bit pattern is 1011000000011011. From the above

diagram of frame relay format the FECN bit is 1 and the BECN bit is
0. There is congestion in the forward direction, but there is no
congestion in the backward direction.
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 Congestion Control Techniques
Numerical 1:- Case 3

The address field of a Frame Relay frame is 1011000000010111. Is there

any congestion
in the forward direction? Is there any congestion in the backward direction?
Solution:-

Given the bit pattern is 1011000000010111. From the above

diagram of frame relay format the FECN bit is 0 and the BECN bit is
1. There is no congestion in the forward direction, but there is
congestion in the backward direction.
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Numerical 4:-Case 4

The address field of a Frame Relay frame is 1011000000011111. Is there

any congestion
in the forward direction? Is there any congestion in the backward direction?
Solution:-

Given the bit pattern is 101100000001111. From the above

diagram of frame relay format the FECN bit is 1 and the BECN bit is
1. There is congestion in both forward direction and backward
direction.
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References

 Forouzan “Data Communication and Networking” fourth edition

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