It is increasingly difficult for Internet congestion control mechanisms to obtain the feedback that they need. This lack of feedback can have severe performance implications, and it is bound to become worse. In the long run, the problem may only be fixable by fundamentally changing the way congestion control is done in the Internet. We substantiate this claim by looking at the evolution of the Internet's infrastructure over the past thirty years, and by examining the most common behavior of Internet traffic. Considering the goals that congestion control mechanisms are intended to address, and taking into account contextual developments in the Internet ecosystem, we arrive at conclusions and recommendations about possible future congestion control design directions. In particular, we argue that congestion control mechanisms should move away from their strict "end-to-end" adherence. This change would benefit from avoiding a "one size fits all circumstances" approach, and moving towards a more selective set of mechanisms that will result in a better performing Internet. We will also discuss how this future vision differs from today's use of Performance Enhancing Proxies (PEPs).
翻译:互联网拥堵控制机制越来越难以获得它们所需要的反馈。 这种缺乏反馈可能带来严重的性能影响,而且必然会变得更糟。 从长远看,这一问题只能通过从根本上改变互联网堵塞控制的方式来解决这个问题。 我们通过审视互联网基础设施过去三十年的演变以及互联网交通的最常见行为来证实这一说法。 考虑到拥堵控制机制要处理的目标,并考虑到互联网生态系统的背景发展,我们就可能的未来拥堵控制设计方向达成结论和建议。特别是,我们主张,堵塞控制机制应该摆脱严格的“端至端”坚持。这一变化将有利于避免“一刀切”的做法,并转向更有选择的一套机制,从而导致互联网运行的更好。我们还将讨论这一未来愿景与今天使用“提高绩效”方案有何不同。