RE: tcptrace Slow Start Duration

From: Gianluca Colangelo (TEI) (Gianluca.Colangelo@tei.ericsson.se)
Date: 03/21/03

  • Next message: Mark Allman: "Re: tcptrace Slow Start Duration"

    Message-ID: <5DEA4E2C8262D51188B70002A55CA3C50363A709@eitrmnt106.tei.ericsson.se>
    From: "Gianluca Colangelo (TEI)" <Gianluca.Colangelo@tei.ericsson.se>
    Subject: RE: tcptrace Slow Start Duration 
    Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2003 18:36:00 +0100
    
    

    Just to give you little background behind this request, the problem concerns wireless networks. In wireless networks due to the high latency slow start can take a long time, during which the available bandwidth is under-utilized. Now being able to measure slow-start duration means also being able to tell for how long the bandwidth in under-utilized, which is a very interesting measure.

    >From my experience in wireless networks the case that most frequently happens is "window-limited" and that is also the only one I would be interested in. Losses tend not to occur as buffering is used at the border between wired and wireless, the other 2 also would not be relevant to answer the question "for how long the bandwidth is under-utilised".

    It would be interesting to see if a heuristic works for case 1. Surely looking at the owin graph (red line - the instantaneous one - to flatten out) it does answer my original question, provided that the dump is taken at the sender side.

    Best regards,
    Gianluca

    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: Mark Allman [mailto:mallman@grc.nasa.gov]
    > Sent: marted́ 18 marzo 2003 5.10
    > To: ostermann@eecs.ohiou.edu
    > Cc: tcptrace@tcptrace.org
    > Subject: Re: tcptrace Slow Start Duration
    >
    >
    >
    > > > * Watch for a retransmit, which should signal the end of slow
    > > > start.
    > >
    > > Unless you become window limited first. Which is still common in
    > > my experience. Whether that's true or not, we get to your next
    > > point...
    > >
    > > > * Watch for the connection to become window limited (i.e., the
    > > > cwnd == advertised window).
    > >
    > > Yes. I'm concerned that this heuristic isn't as obvious as I
    > > would like. Making sure that the observed window is within a MSS
    > > of the advertisement would be a start.
    >
    > I think that would actually work pretty well.
    >
    > > I'm concerned that in many traces that I've seen, the tracing
    > > point (while "near" the sender) is just enough farther away that
    > > it's clear in the traces that the connection has become window
    > > limited even though we're technically not near enough the
    > > advertised window.
    >
    > So, there are all sorts of things that tcptrace both measures well
    > and measures really poorly depending on your vantage point. I am
    > not sure I understand the pushback on this point for the duration of
    > slow start.
    >
    > (That's not a vote in favor of it, it's a wondering on what sorts of
    > things make the cut.)
    >
    > > That being said, however, I've been toying with a heuristic of
    > > trying to characterize a connection into:
    > >
    > > 1) window limited
    > > (as above)
    > > 2) loss-limited
    > > (high amount of retransmission)
    > > 3) normal
    > > (or can't tell?)
    > > 4) data limited
    > > (not enough application data)
    >
    > Look at tcpevel (Crovella & Barford - SIGCOMM ~2000). You can do
    > these sorts of things if you're **very** careful.
    >
    > allman
    >
    >
    > --
    > Mark Allman -- NASA GRC/BBN -- http://roland.grc.nasa.gov/~mallman/
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