axus
join:2001-06-18
Washington, DC | reply to starbolin
Re: No Clue Well, I admit I'm not a network engineer, but I think dropping packets decreases congestion with the current TCP stacks. Each client tries to transmit more slowly when it sees a dropped packet. Dropping packets is the standard way for the router to say "I'm getting too much traffic". Yes there will be retransmits, but they will be slower until the router doesn't need to drop packets anymore.
Delaying packets can be an alternative to dropping them, but I thought that remembering a packet while letting others through took more work than dropping it once or twice and passing it through the second or third time. Sending RST packets for specific protocols seems to require another piece of hardware, breaks the standard, and is not "network neutral".
What is the fairness issue? Everyone should get the same proportion of throughput. The YouTube watcher, guy downloading a CD from his work, lady emailing a bunch of pictures, and Bittorrent sharer should get the same total kbps. If the network can't support it, the dropped packets will cause them to slowdown their speeds until it can. If the bittorrent guy is dropping packets in proportion to the number of streams he has open, every stream is going to slow down as much as the single stream guy. |
