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The TCP/IP Guide  9  TCP/IP Lower-Layer (Interface, Internet and Transport) Protocols (OSI Layers 2, 3 and 4)       9  TCP/IP Transport Layer Protocols            9  Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP)                 9  TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)                      9  TCP Reliability and Flow Control Features and Protocol Modifications

TCP Non-Contiguous Acknowledgment Handling and Selective Acknowledgment (SACK) 1 2 3 TCP Window Size Adjustment and Flow Control

Adaptive Retransmission Based on Round-Trip Time Calculations

It is for these reasons that TCP does not attempt to use a static, single number for its retransmission timers. Instead, TCP uses a dynamic, or adaptive retransmission scheme. TCP attempts to determine the approximate round-trip time between the devices, and adjusts it over time to compensate for increases or decreases in the average delay. The practical issues of how this is done are important, but are not covered in much detail in the main TCP standard. RFC 2988, Computing TCP's Retransmission Timer, discusses the issue extensively.

Round-trip times can “bounce” up and down, as we have seen, so we want to aim for an average RTT value for the connection. This average should respond to consistent movement up or down in the RTT without overreacting to a few very slow or fast acknowledgments. To allow this to happen, the RTT calculation uses a smoothing formula:

New RTT = (a * Old RTT) + ( (1-a) * Newest RTT Measurement)

Where “a” (alpha) is a smoothing factor between 0 and 1. Higher values of “a" (closer to 1) provide better smoothing and avoiding sudden changes as a result of one very fast or very slow RTT measurement. Conversely, this also slows down how quickly TCP reacts to more sustained changes in round-trip time. Lower values of alpha (closer to 0) make the RTT change more quickly in reaction to changes in measured RTT, but can cause “over-reaction” when RTTs fluctuate wildly.

Measuring the round-trip time between two devices is simple in concept: note the time that a segment is sent, note the time that an acknowledgment is received, and subtract the two. The measurement is more tricky in actual implementation, however. One of the main potential “gotchas” occurs when a segment is assumed lost and is retransmitted. The retransmitted segment carries nothing that distinguishes it from the original. When an acknowledgment is received for this segment, it's unclear as to whether this corresponds to the retransmission or the original segment. (Even though we decided the segment was lost and retransmitted it, it's possible the segment eventually got there, after taking a long time; or that the segment got their quickly but the acknowledgment took a long time!)

This is called acknowledgment ambiguity, and is not trivial to solve. We can't just decide to assume that an acknowledgment always goes with the oldest copy of the segment sent, because this makes the round-trip time appear too high. We also don't want to just assume an acknowledgment always goes with the latest sending of the segment, as that may artificially lower the average round-trip time.

TCP Non-Contiguous Acknowledgment Handling and Selective Acknowledgment (SACK) 1 2 3 TCP Window Size Adjustment and Flow Control