Network Working Group                                          M. Allman
Request for Comments: 2581                  NASA Glenn/Sterling Software
Obsoletes: 2001                                                V. Paxson
Category: Standards Track                                   ACIRI / ICSI
                                                             W. Stevens
                                                             Consultant
                                                             April 1999


                        TCP Congestion Control

Status of this Memo

  This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
  Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
  improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
  Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
  and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

  Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

  This document defines TCP's four intertwined congestion control
  algorithms: slow start, congestion avoidance, fast retransmit, and
  fast recovery.  In addition, the document specifies how TCP should
  begin transmission after a relatively long idle period, as well as
  discussing various acknowledgment generation methods.

1. Introduction

  This document specifies four TCP [Pos81] congestion control
  algorithms: slow start, congestion avoidance, fast retransmit and
  fast recovery.  These algorithms were devised in [Jac88] and [Jac90].
  Their use with TCP is standardized in [Bra89].

  This document is an update of [Ste97].  In addition to specifying the
  congestion control algorithms, this document specifies what TCP
  connections should do after a relatively long idle period, as well as
  specifying and clarifying some of the issues pertaining to TCP ACK
  generation.

  Note that [Ste94] provides examples of these algorithms in action and
  [WS95] provides an explanation of the source code for the BSD
  implementation of these algorithms.




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  This document is organized as follows.  Section 2 provides various
  definitions which will be used throughout the document.  Section 3
  provides a specification of the congestion control algorithms.
  Section 4 outlines concerns related to the congestion control
  algorithms and finally, section 5 outlines security considerations.

  The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
  "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
  document are to be interpreted as described in [Bra97].

2. Definitions

  This section provides the definition of several terms that will be
  used throughout the remainder of this document.

  SEGMENT:
     A segment is ANY TCP/IP data or acknowledgment packet (or both).

  SENDER MAXIMUM SEGMENT SIZE (SMSS):  The SMSS is the size of the
     largest segment that the sender can transmit.  This value can be
     based on the maximum transmission unit of the network, the path
     MTU discovery [MD90] algorithm, RMSS (see next item), or other
     factors.  The size does not include the TCP/IP headers and
     options.

  RECEIVER MAXIMUM SEGMENT SIZE (RMSS):  The RMSS is the size of the
     largest segment the receiver is willing to accept.  This is the
     value specified in the MSS option sent by the receiver during
     connection startup.  Or, if the MSS option is not used, 536 bytes
     [Bra89].  The size does not include the TCP/IP headers and
     options.

  FULL-SIZED SEGMENT: A segment that contains the maximum number of
     data bytes permitted (i.e., a segment containing SMSS bytes of
     data).

  RECEIVER WINDOW (rwnd) The most recently advertised receiver window.

  CONGESTION WINDOW (cwnd):  A TCP state variable that limits the
     amount of data a TCP can send.  At any given time, a TCP MUST NOT
     send data with a sequence number higher than the sum of the
     highest acknowledged sequence number and the minimum of cwnd and
     rwnd.

  INITIAL WINDOW (IW):  The initial window is the size of the sender's
     congestion window after the three-way handshake is completed.





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  LOSS WINDOW (LW):  The loss window is the size of the congestion
     window after a TCP sender detects loss using its retransmission
     timer.

  RESTART WINDOW (RW):  The restart window is the size of the
     congestion window after a TCP restarts transmission after an idle
     period (if the slow start algorithm is used; see section 4.1 for
     more discussion).

  FLIGHT SIZE:  The amount of data that has been sent but not yet
     acknowledged.

3. Congestion Control Algorithms

  This section defines the four congestion control algorithms: slow
  start, congestion avoidance, fast retransmit and fast recovery,
  developed in [Jac88] and [Jac90].  In some situations it may be
  beneficial for a TCP sender to be more conservative than the
  algorithms allow, however a TCP MUST NOT be more aggressive than the
  following algorithms allow (that is, MUST NOT send data when the
  value of cwnd computed by the following algorithms would not allow
  the data to be sent).

3.1 Slow Start and Congestion Avoidance

  The slow start and congestion avoidance algorithms MUST be used by a
  TCP sender to control the amount of outstanding data being injected
  into the network.  To implement these algorithms, two variables are
  added to the TCP per-connection state.  The congestion window (cwnd)
  is a sender-side limit on the amount of data the sender can transmit
  into the network before receiving an acknowledgment (ACK), while the
  receiver's advertised window (rwnd) is a receiver-side limit on the
  amount of outstanding data.  The minimum of cwnd and rwnd governs
  data transmission.

  Another state variable, the slow start threshold (ssthresh), is used
  to determine whether the slow start or congestion avoidance algorithm
  is used to control data transmission, as discussed below.

  Beginning transmission into a network with unknown conditions
  requires TCP to slowly probe the network to determine the available
  capacity, in order to avoid congesting the network with an
  inappropriately large burst of data.  The slow start algorithm is
  used for this purpose at the beginning of a transfer, or after
  repairing loss detected by the retransmission timer.






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  IW, the initial value of cwnd, MUST be less than or equal to 2*SMSS
  bytes and MUST NOT be more than 2 segments.

  We note that a non-standard, experimental TCP extension allows that a
  TCP MAY use a larger initial window (IW), as defined in equation 1
  [AFP98]:

     IW = min (4*SMSS, max (2*SMSS, 4380 bytes))           (1)

  With this extension, a TCP sender MAY use a 3 or 4 segment initial
  window, provided the combined size of the segments does not exceed
  4380 bytes.  We do NOT allow this change as part of the standard
  defined by this document.  However, we include discussion of (1) in
  the remainder of this document as a guideline for those experimenting
  with the change, rather than conforming to the present standards for
  TCP congestion control.

  The initial value of ssthresh MAY be arbitrarily high (for example,
  some implementations use the size of the advertised window), but it
  may be reduced in response to congestion.  The slow start algorithm
  is used when cwnd < ssthresh, while the congestion avoidance
  algorithm is used when cwnd > ssthresh.  When cwnd and ssthresh are
  equal the sender may use either slow start or congestion avoidance.

  During slow start, a TCP increments cwnd by at most SMSS bytes for
  each ACK received that acknowledges new data.  Slow start ends when
  cwnd exceeds ssthresh (or, optionally, when it reaches it, as noted
  above) or when congestion is observed.

  During congestion avoidance, cwnd is incremented by 1 full-sized
  segment per round-trip time (RTT).  Congestion avoidance continues
  until congestion is detected.  One formula commonly used to update
  cwnd during congestion avoidance is given in equation 2:

     cwnd += SMSS*SMSS/cwnd                     (2)

  This adjustment is executed on every incoming non-duplicate ACK.
  Equation (2) provides an acceptable approximation to the underlying
  principle of increasing cwnd by 1 full-sized segment per RTT.  (Note
  that for a connection in which the receiver acknowledges every data
  segment, (2) proves slightly more aggressive than 1 segment per RTT,
  and for a receiver acknowledging every-other packet, (2) is less
  aggressive.)








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  Implementation Note: Since integer arithmetic is usually used in TCP
  implementations, the formula given in equation 2 can fail to increase
  cwnd when the congestion window is very large (larger than
  SMSS*SMSS).  If the above formula yields 0, the result SHOULD be
  rounded up to 1 byte.

  Implementation Note: older implementations have an additional
  additive constant on the right-hand side of equation (2).  This is
  incorrect and can actually lead to diminished performance [PAD+98].

  Another acceptable way to increase cwnd during congestion avoidance
  is to count the number of bytes that have been acknowledged by ACKs
  for new data.  (A drawback of this implementation is that it requires
  maintaining an additional state variable.)  When the number of bytes
  acknowledged reaches cwnd, then cwnd can be incremented by up to SMSS
  bytes.  Note that during congestion avoidance, cwnd MUST NOT be
  increased by more than the larger of either 1 full-sized segment per
  RTT, or the value computed using equation 2.

  Implementation Note: some implementations maintain cwnd in units of
  bytes, while others in units of full-sized segments.  The latter will
  find equation (2) difficult to use, and may prefer to use the
  counting approach discussed in the previous paragraph.

  When a TCP sender detects segment loss using the retransmission
  timer, the value of ssthresh MUST be set to no more than the value
  given in equation 3:

     ssthresh = max (FlightSize / 2, 2*SMSS)            (3)

  As discussed above, FlightSize is the amount of outstanding data in
  the network.

  Implementation Note: an easy mistake to make is to simply use cwnd,
  rather than FlightSize, which in some implementations may
  incidentally increase well beyond rwnd.

  Furthermore, upon a timeout cwnd MUST be set to no more than the loss
  window, LW, which equals 1 full-sized segment (regardless of the
  value of IW).  Therefore, after retransmitting the dropped segment
  the TCP sender uses the slow start algorithm to increase the window
  from 1 full-sized segment to the new value of ssthresh, at which
  point congestion avoidance again takes over.








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RFC 2581                 TCP Congestion Control               April 1999


3.2 Fast Retransmit/Fast Recovery

  A TCP receiver SHOULD send an immediate duplicate ACK when an out-
  of-order segment arrives.  The purpose of this ACK is to inform the
  sender that a segment was received out-of-order and which sequence
  number is expected.  From the sender's perspective, duplicate ACKs
  can be caused by a number of network problems.  First, they can be
  caused by dropped segments.  In this case, all segments after the
  dropped segment will trigger duplicate ACKs.  Second, duplicate ACKs
  can be caused by the re-ordering of data segments by the network (not
  a rare event along some network paths [Pax97]).  Finally, duplicate
  ACKs can be caused by replication of ACK or data segments by the
  network.  In addition, a TCP receiver SHOULD send an immediate ACK
  when the incoming segment fills in all or part of a gap in the
  sequence space.  This will generate more timely information for a
  sender recovering from a loss through a retransmission timeout, a
  fast retransmit, or an experimental loss recovery algorithm, such as
  NewReno [FH98].

  The TCP sender SHOULD use the "fast retransmit" algorithm to detect
  and repair loss, based on incoming duplicate ACKs.  The fast
  retransmit algorithm uses the arrival of 3 duplicate ACKs (4
  identical ACKs without the arrival of any other intervening packets)
  as an indication that a segment has been lost.  After receiving 3
  duplicate ACKs, TCP performs a retransmission of what appears to be
  the missing segment, without waiting for the retransmission timer to
  expire.

  After the fast retransmit algorithm sends what appears to be the
  missing segment, the "fast recovery" algorithm governs the
  transmission of new data until a non-duplicate ACK arrives.  The
  reason for not performing slow start is that the receipt of the
  duplicate ACKs not only indicates that a segment has been lost, but
  also that segments are most likely leaving the network (although a
  massive segment duplication by the network can invalidate this
  conclusion).  In other words, since the receiver can only generate a
  duplicate ACK when a segment has arrived, that segment has left the
  network and is in the receiver's buffer, so we know it is no longer
  consuming network resources.  Furthermore, since the ACK "clock"
  [Jac88] is preserved, the TCP sender can continue to transmit new
  segments (although transmission must continue using a reduced cwnd).

  The fast retransmit and fast recovery algorithms are usually
  implemented together as follows.

  1.  When the third duplicate ACK is received, set ssthresh to no more
      than the value given in equation 3.




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  2.  Retransmit the lost segment and set cwnd to ssthresh plus 3*SMSS.
      This artificially "inflates" the congestion window by the number
      of segments (three) that have left the network and which the
      receiver has buffered.

  3.  For each additional duplicate ACK received, increment cwnd by
      SMSS.  This artificially inflates the congestion window in order
      to reflect the additional segment that has left the network.

  4.  Transmit a segment, if allowed by the new value of cwnd and the
      receiver's advertised window.

  5.  When the next ACK arrives that acknowledges new data, set cwnd to
      ssthresh (the value set in step 1).  This is termed "deflating"
      the window.

      This ACK should be the acknowledgment elicited by the
      retransmission from step 1, one RTT after the retransmission
      (though it may arrive sooner in the presence of significant out-
      of-order delivery of data segments at the receiver).
      Additionally, this ACK should acknowledge all the intermediate
      segments sent between the lost segment and the receipt of the
      third duplicate ACK, if none of these were lost.

  Note: This algorithm is known to generally not recover very
  efficiently from multiple losses in a single flight of packets
  [FF96].  One proposed set of modifications to address this problem
  can be found in [FH98].

4. Additional Considerations

4.1 Re-starting Idle Connections

  A known problem with the TCP congestion control algorithms described
  above is that they allow a potentially inappropriate burst of traffic
  to be transmitted after TCP has been idle for a relatively long
  period of time.  After an idle period, TCP cannot use the ACK clock
  to strobe new segments into the network, as all the ACKs have drained
  from the network.  Therefore, as specified above, TCP can potentially
  send a cwnd-size line-rate burst into the network after an idle
  period.

  [Jac88] recommends that a TCP use slow start to restart transmission
  after a relatively long idle period.  Slow start serves to restart
  the ACK clock, just as it does at the beginning of a transfer.  This
  mechanism has been widely deployed in the following manner.  When TCP
  has not received a segment for more than one retransmission timeout,
  cwnd is reduced to the value of the restart window (RW) before



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RFC 2581                 TCP Congestion Control               April 1999


  transmission begins.

  For the purposes of this standard, we define RW = IW.

  We note that the non-standard experimental extension to TCP defined
  in [AFP98] defines RW = min(IW, cwnd), with the definition of IW
  adjusted per equation (1) above.

  Using the last time a segment was received to determine whether or
  not to decrease cwnd fails to deflate cwnd in the common case of
  persistent HTTP connections [HTH98].  In this case, a WWW server
  receives a request before transmitting data to the WWW browser.  The
  reception of the request makes the test for an idle connection fail,
  and allows the TCP to begin transmission with a possibly
  inappropriately large cwnd.

  Therefore, a TCP SHOULD set cwnd to no more than RW before beginning
  transmission if the TCP has not sent data in an interval exceeding
  the retransmission timeout.

4.2 Generating Acknowledgments

  The delayed ACK algorithm specified in [Bra89] SHOULD be used by a
  TCP receiver.  When used, a TCP receiver MUST NOT excessively delay
  acknowledgments.  Specifically, an ACK SHOULD be generated for at
  least every second full-sized segment, and MUST be generated within
  500 ms of the arrival of the first unacknowledged packet.

  The requirement that an ACK "SHOULD" be generated for at least every
  second full-sized segment is listed in [Bra89] in one place as a
  SHOULD and another as a MUST.  Here we unambiguously state it is a
  SHOULD.  We also emphasize that this is a SHOULD, meaning that an
  implementor should indeed only deviate from this requirement after
  careful consideration of the implications.  See the discussion of
  "Stretch ACK violation" in [PAD+98] and the references therein for a
  discussion of the possible performance problems with generating ACKs
  less frequently than every second full-sized segment.

  In some cases, the sender and receiver may not agree on what
  constitutes a full-sized segment.  An implementation is deemed to
  comply with this requirement if it sends at least one acknowledgment
  every time it receives 2*RMSS bytes of new data from the sender,
  where RMSS is the Maximum Segment Size specified by the receiver to
  the sender (or the default value of 536 bytes, per [Bra89], if the
  receiver does not specify an MSS option during connection
  establishment).  The sender may be forced to use a segment size less
  than RMSS due to the maximum transmission unit (MTU), the path MTU
  discovery algorithm or other factors.  For instance, consider the



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  case when the receiver announces an RMSS of X bytes but the sender
  ends up using a segment size of Y bytes (Y < X) due to path MTU
  discovery (or the sender's MTU size).  The receiver will generate
  stretch ACKs if it waits for 2*X bytes to arrive before an ACK is
  sent.  Clearly this will take more than 2 segments of size Y bytes.
  Therefore, while a specific algorithm is not defined, it is desirable
  for receivers to attempt to prevent this situation, for example by
  acknowledging at least every second segment, regardless of size.
  Finally, we repeat that an ACK MUST NOT be delayed for more than 500
  ms waiting on a second full-sized segment to arrive.

  Out-of-order data segments SHOULD be acknowledged immediately, in
  order to accelerate loss recovery.  To trigger the fast retransmit
  algorithm, the receiver SHOULD send an immediate duplicate ACK when
  it receives a data segment above a gap in the sequence space.  To
  provide feedback to senders recovering from losses, the receiver
  SHOULD send an immediate ACK when it receives a data segment that
  fills in all or part of a gap in the sequence space.

  A TCP receiver MUST NOT generate more than one ACK for every incoming
  segment, other than to update the offered window as the receiving
  application consumes new data [page 42, Pos81][Cla82].

4.3 Loss Recovery Mechanisms

  A number of loss recovery algorithms that augment fast retransmit and
  fast recovery have been suggested by TCP researchers.  While some of
  these algorithms are based on the TCP selective acknowledgment (SACK)
  option [MMFR96], such as [FF96,MM96a,MM96b], others do not require
  SACKs [Hoe96,FF96,FH98].  The non-SACK algorithms use "partial
  acknowledgments" (ACKs which cover new data, but not all the data
  outstanding when loss was detected) to trigger retransmissions.
  While this document does not standardize any of the specific
  algorithms that may improve fast retransmit/fast recovery, these
  enhanced algorithms are implicitly allowed, as long as they follow
  the general principles of the basic four algorithms outlined above.

  Therefore, when the first loss in a window of data is detected,
  ssthresh MUST be set to no more than the value given by equation (3).
  Second, until all lost segments in the window of data in question are
  repaired, the number of segments transmitted in each RTT MUST be no
  more than half the number of outstanding segments when the loss was
  detected.  Finally, after all loss in the given window of segments
  has been successfully retransmitted, cwnd MUST be set to no more than
  ssthresh and congestion avoidance MUST be used to further increase
  cwnd.  Loss in two successive windows of data, or the loss of a
  retransmission, should be taken as two indications of congestion and,
  therefore, cwnd (and ssthresh) MUST be lowered twice in this case.



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RFC 2581                 TCP Congestion Control               April 1999


  The algorithms outlined in [Hoe96,FF96,MM96a,MM6b] follow the
  principles of the basic four congestion control algorithms outlined
  in this document.

5.  Security Considerations

  This document requires a TCP to diminish its sending rate in the
  presence of retransmission timeouts and the arrival of duplicate
  acknowledgments.  An attacker can therefore impair the performance of
  a TCP connection by either causing data packets or their
  acknowledgments to be lost, or by forging excessive duplicate
  acknowledgments.  Causing two congestion control events back-to-back
  will often cut ssthresh to its minimum value of 2*SMSS, causing the
  connection to immediately enter the slower-performing congestion
  avoidance phase.

  The Internet to a considerable degree relies on the correct
  implementation of these algorithms in order to preserve network
  stability and avoid congestion collapse.  An attacker could cause TCP
  endpoints to respond more aggressively in the face of congestion by
  forging excessive duplicate acknowledgments or excessive
  acknowledgments for new data.  Conceivably, such an attack could
  drive a portion of the network into congestion collapse.

6.  Changes Relative to RFC 2001

  This document has been extensively rewritten editorially and it is
  not feasible to itemize the list of changes between the two
  documents. The intention of this document is not to change any of the
  recommendations given in RFC 2001, but to further clarify cases that
  were not discussed in detail in 2001. Specifically, this document
  suggests what TCP connections should do after a relatively long idle
  period, as well as specifying and clarifying some of the issues
  pertaining to TCP ACK generation.  Finally, the allowable upper bound
  for the initial congestion window has also been raised from one to
  two segments.

Acknowledgments

  The four algorithms that are described were developed by Van
  Jacobson.

  Some of the text from this document is taken from "TCP/IP
  Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols" by W. Richard Stevens
  (Addison-Wesley, 1994) and "TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 2: The
  Implementation" by Gary R. Wright and W.  Richard Stevens (Addison-
  Wesley, 1995).  This material is used with the permission of
  Addison-Wesley.



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RFC 2581                 TCP Congestion Control               April 1999


  Neal Cardwell, Sally Floyd, Craig Partridge and Joe Touch contributed
  a number of helpful suggestions.

References

  [AFP98]  Allman, M., Floyd, S. and C. Partridge, "Increasing TCP's
           Initial Window Size, RFC 2414, September 1998.

  [Bra89]  Braden, R., "Requirements for Internet Hosts --
           Communication Layers", STD 3, RFC 1122, October 1989.

  [Bra97]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
           Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

  [Cla82]  Clark, D., "Window and Acknowledgment Strategy in TCP", RFC
           813, July 1982.

  [FF96]   Fall, K. and S. Floyd, "Simulation-based Comparisons of
           Tahoe, Reno and SACK TCP", Computer Communication Review,
           July 1996. ftp://ftp.ee.lbl.gov/papers/sacks.ps.Z.

  [FH98]   Floyd, S. and T. Henderson, "The NewReno Modification to
           TCP's Fast Recovery Algorithm", RFC 2582, April 1999.

  [Flo94]  Floyd, S., "TCP and Successive Fast Retransmits. Technical
           report", October 1994.
           ftp://ftp.ee.lbl.gov/papers/fastretrans.ps.

  [Hoe96]  Hoe, J., "Improving the Start-up Behavior of a Congestion
           Control Scheme for TCP", In ACM SIGCOMM, August 1996.

  [HTH98]  Hughes, A., Touch, J. and J. Heidemann, "Issues in TCP
           Slow-Start Restart After Idle", Work in Progress.

  [Jac88]  Jacobson, V., "Congestion Avoidance and Control", Computer
           Communication Review, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 314-329, Aug.
           1988.  ftp://ftp.ee.lbl.gov/papers/congavoid.ps.Z.

  [Jac90]  Jacobson, V., "Modified TCP Congestion Avoidance Algorithm",
           end2end-interest mailing list, April 30, 1990.
           ftp://ftp.isi.edu/end2end/end2end-interest-1990.mail.

  [MD90]   Mogul, J. and S. Deering, "Path MTU Discovery", RFC 1191,
           November 1990.







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RFC 2581                 TCP Congestion Control               April 1999


  [MM96a]  Mathis, M. and J. Mahdavi, "Forward Acknowledgment: Refining
           TCP Congestion Control", Proceedings of SIGCOMM'96, August,
           1996, Stanford, CA.  Available
           fromhttp://www.psc.edu/networking/papers/papers.html

  [MM96b]  Mathis, M. and J. Mahdavi, "TCP Rate-Halving with Bounding
           Parameters", Technical report.  Available from
           http://www.psc.edu/networking/papers/FACKnotes/current.

  [MMFR96] Mathis, M., Mahdavi, J., Floyd, S. and A. Romanow, "TCP
           Selective Acknowledgement Options", RFC 2018, October 1996.

  [PAD+98] Paxson, V., Allman, M., Dawson, S., Fenner, W., Griner, J.,
           Heavens, I., Lahey, K., Semke, J. and B. Volz, "Known TCP
           Implementation Problems", RFC 2525, March 1999.

  [Pax97]  Paxson, V., "End-to-End Internet Packet Dynamics",
           Proceedings of SIGCOMM '97, Cannes, France, Sep. 1997.

  [Pos81]  Postel, J., "Transmission Control Protocol", STD 7, RFC 793,
           September 1981.

  [Ste94]  Stevens, W., "TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols",
           Addison-Wesley, 1994.

  [Ste97]  Stevens, W., "TCP Slow Start, Congestion Avoidance, Fast
           Retransmit, and Fast Recovery Algorithms", RFC 2001, January
           1997.

  [WS95]   Wright, G. and W. Stevens, "TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 2:
           The Implementation", Addison-Wesley, 1995.




















Allman, et. al.             Standards Track                    [Page 12]

RFC 2581                 TCP Congestion Control               April 1999


Authors' Addresses

  Mark Allman
  NASA Glenn Research Center/Sterling Software
  Lewis Field
  21000 Brookpark Rd.  MS 54-2
  Cleveland, OH  44135
  216-433-6586

  EMail: [email protected]
  http://roland.grc.nasa.gov/~mallman


  Vern Paxson
  ACIRI / ICSI
  1947 Center Street
  Suite 600
  Berkeley, CA 94704-1198

  Phone: +1 510/642-4274 x302
  EMail: [email protected]


  W. Richard Stevens
  1202 E. Paseo del Zorro
  Tucson, AZ  85718
  520-297-9416

  EMail: [email protected]
  http://www.kohala.com/~rstevens





















Allman, et. al.             Standards Track                    [Page 13]

RFC 2581                 TCP Congestion Control               April 1999


Full Copyright Statement

  Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

  This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
  others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
  or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
  and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
  kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
  included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
  document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
  the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
  Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
  developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
  copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
  followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
  English.

  The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
  revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

  This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
  "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
  TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
  BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
  HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
  MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
























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