MulTFRC

Abstract

When data transfers to or from a host happen in parallel, users do not always consider them to have the same importance. Ideally, a transport protocol should therefore allow its users to manipulate the fairness among flows in an almost arbitrary fashion. Since data transfers can also include real-time media streams which need to keep delay | and hence buffers | small, the protocol should also have a smooth sending rate. In an effort to satisfy the above requirements, we present MulTFRC, a congestion control mechanism which is based on the TCP-friendly Rate Control (TFRC) protocol. It emulates the behavior of a number of TFRC flows while maintaining a smooth sending rate. Our simulations and a real-life test demonstrate that MulTFRC performs significantly better than its competitors, potentially making it applicable in a broader range of settings than what TFRC is normally associated with.