Enhancing TCP Performance using Quick-Start

Aki Nyrhinen (University of Helsinki) and Ilpo Järvinen (University of Helsinki)

Quick-Start (QS) is a mechanism which the transport layer (TCP) can use to
probe available network bandwidth and then start a transfer more aggressively
than the traditional Slow-Start (SS) would allow. QS can be used to probe the
available bandwidth after a vertical handover in addition to probing it at
connection startup. It is mostly beneficial for transfers which are relatively
short, ie. WWW traffic, and the benefit is most visible on links having a high
bandwidth-delay product. QS needs all the intermediate routers along the path
to participate: each router must allow, reduce or disallow the request. The
demonstration is a setup consisting of a QS-enhanced system (TCP and routers
are QS enabled) competing with a regular TCP.