An Overview of Packet Reordering in Transmission Control Protocol (TCP):
Problems, Solutions, and Challenges
Abstract
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is the most popular transport layer
protocol for the Internet. Due to various reasons, such as multipath routing,
route fluttering, and retransmissions, packets belonging to the same flow may
arrive out of order at a destination. Such packet reordering violates the
design principles of some traffic control mechanisms in TCP and, thus, poses
performance problems. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive and in-depth
survey on recent research on packet reordering in TCP. The causes and problems
for packet reordering are discussed. Various representative algorithms are
examined and compared by computer simulations. The ported program codes and
simulation scripts are available for download. Some open questions are
discussed to stimulate further research in this area.
Research Deliverables
- Leung, K.-C.,
Li, V. O. K., and
Yang, D.,
``An
Overview of Packet Reordering in Transmission Control Protocol (TCP):
Problems, Solutions, and Challenges,''
IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems
(IEEE TPDS), Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 522-535, April 2007.
- Simulation Code
If you use any data, simulation code, and/or tools for research,
education, or commercial purposes, you must give credit to our research
sponsor, the Areas of Excellence Scheme established under the University Grants
Committee of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No.
AoE/E-01/99).
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Sumitha Bhandarkar, Ethan Blanton,
Chansook Lim, Arjuna Sathiaseelan, Morten Schlager, Feng Wang, Yongguang Zhang,
and Ming Zhang for releasing their ns-2 source codes to our simulation
study.
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