Robust Congestion Control for the Internet

Glenn Vinnicombe (CUED)

The mechanisms for regulating traffic on the internet constitute one of the largest automatic control systems yet developed. Unfortunately, there are no guarantees as to the stability of this system - indeed large oscillations in flow rates (which are detrimental to many applications) are often seen. Key features of this control problem are its necessarily decentralized nature and the fact that feedback from the network about congestion is subject to appreciable delay (both due to the finite speed of light). This talk will present techniques for analysing the stability of this and similar systems, and also modifications of the usual algorithms which can guarantee the robust stability of a network with arbitrary topology and heterogenous round trip times.

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