Reduced TCP Window Size

for VoIP in Legacy LAN Environments

Nikolaus Frber,
Bernd Girod, Balaji Prabhakar
 Scenario
Host
10 BASE-T

S T1/DSL/Cable
R
IP Phone T2
WAN
...

Legacy LAN, IP best-effort

Last Mile Problems:
Data (TCP) interferes
SOHO with < 30 nodes with voice (UDP)
Switched, full duplex LAN architecture Queuing delay
10/100 BASE-T, single switch Loss
Nikolaus Frber Legacy LAN VoIP
 Goal
Control TCP traffic from network edge (T2)
such that voice delay is reduced

Nikolaus Frber Legacy LAN VoIP

 Overview
TCP flow control basics
Window based flow control
Bandwidth-delay product
TCPs congestion avoidance
Bandwidth-delay product
LFNs
LANs
Rule of thumb for setting advertised window size
Results: voice delay and data throughput for
File transfer
LAN at different loads
TCP window control by T2
Limitations and work around

Nikolaus Frber Legacy LAN VoIP

 TCP Flow Control Basics
TCP flow control based on window size W (number of packets
source is allowed to send without ACK)
Receiver signals advertised window size Wmax in ACK
Steady state: WN = BD
B = 40 packet/sec
tx rx D = 0.1 sec W=2
N = 2 connections

TCP does not know B, D, N !

Use loss as implicit sign for congestion:

Increase until loss (incremental increase)

Back off (multiplicative decrease)

Nikolaus Frber Legacy LAN VoIP

 BD for LFNs
Long Fat Networks (LFNs) have big BD
requiring big windows
Example: cross-country ATM

B = 155 Mbps
BD = 1.3 MByte
D = 70 ms

Original TCP only supports 64 Kbyte (16 bit filed in header)

New window scaling option allows up to 1 Gbyte
Common values still 32-64 KByte

Nikolaus Frber Legacy LAN VoIP

 BD for LANs
Wmax for LFNs way too big for LANs!
Example, single Ethernet link: tx
BD <! 512 bit
dack = A/B ddata = P/B
Main delay on switched LAN:
Packet transmission ddata = P/B
Store-and-forward operation dQ,bwd sw dQ,fwd
Queuing delay dQ
dack = A/B ddata = P/B
Estimate for low loads:
D < 2HP/B
N =1
rx
Rule of thumb based on WN = BD
P = 1500 Byte
Wmax = 2HP A = 60 Byte
B = 10 Mbps
Typical settings: Wmax = 4 -16 KByte

Nikolaus Frber Legacy LAN VoIP

 File Transfer: Scenario
Voice traffic: UDP, 30 ms, 240 Byte, 10 s
Data traffic: TCP, 8 MB file, 1500 Byte packets, start at 3.5 s
Links: 10/100 Mbps, full duplex, 0.1 ms delay
Switch: 30 KByte buffer, Drop-Tail

File Server 100BASE-T

TCP data bottle neck

S
Host R
10BASE-T

UDP voice

Nikolaus Frber Legacy LAN VoIP

 File Transfer: Simulation Results
30
25
Wmax = 32 KB
voice delay

20
Wmax = 8 KB
[ms]

15 ftp
10
start
5
0
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

12
data throughput

10
8
[Mbps]

6
4
2
0
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
time [s]
Nikolaus Frber Legacy LAN VoIP
 File Transfer: Measurements
70
60
Wmax = 32 KB
voice delay

50
Wmax = 8 KB
[ms]

40 ftp
30 start
20
10
0
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

10
data throughput

8
[Mbps]

0
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
time [s]
Nikolaus Frber Legacy LAN VoIP
 LAN: Simulation Scenario
Balanced N-N communication
Traffic model:
File size PDF fF(F): Log-Normal [Arlit 99, Douceur 99]
Idle time T ~ F /
Evaluation: load [0,1]
Voice QoS: 95 percentile of voice delay (d95)
Data QoS: goodput G = Fi / Ti

1 TCP data 10BASE-T only

Average data
2 UDP voice
rate on each link
S in each direction
3 R is ~ 10 Mbps
...

Nikolaus Frber Legacy LAN VoIP

 LAN: Simulation Results
L=4, Bsw = 200 KByte
95 percentile of voice delay, d95 [ms]

90 = 0.5
Wmax = 32 0.4 Low load
80
0.3 Voice uncritical
70
Data critical
60
0.2 High load
50
16 Voice critical
40 0.1
Data uncritical
30
W=4 is good choice
20 8 for all loads!
10 4
1 2
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
data goodput, G [Mbps]

Nikolaus Frber Legacy LAN VoIP

 LAN: Simulation Result (Cont.)
L=16, Bsw = 100 KByte
90
95 percentile of voice delay, d95 [ms]

80 General behavior
also applies for
70
L = {4,8,16}
60 = 0.5 Bsw = {100,200,
32
50 0.4 300}
16
40
0.3 H = {2,4}
8 0.2 For H=4 (each host
30
has T2) optimal
20 4 window size is
2 10 0.1 Wmax = 8
Wmax= 1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
data goodput, G [Mbps]

Nikolaus Frber Legacy LAN VoIP

 TCP Window Control by T2
Advertised window size Wmax is signaled in ACK
T2 can intercept all TCP ACKs and reduce Wmax before butting it
back onto LAN
TCP flows of WAN traffic is not changed
This packet spoofing technique is also used by Packeteer Inc.
for TCP rate control
No need to modify server/client software
Particular simple for single switch LAN
Even for single T2, the connected host can take full advantage of
the technique
Allows gradual deployment without need to use T2 for all hosts

Nikolaus Frber Legacy LAN VoIP

 Limitations

UDP voice
S1 S3
S2 R
TCP data

Control from network edge is limited for general LAN topology

T2 cannot control traffic through remote switches

Nikolaus Frber Legacy LAN VoIP

 Work Around

UDP voice
S1 S3
S2 R
TCP data

Avoid queuing delays in between switches

Keep inter-switch traffic low
Use faster links for inter-switch connections
generate virtual big switch
Allow communication amoung T2s

Nikolaus Frber Legacy LAN VoIP

 Conclusions
Reduced TCP window size is advantageous for local data traffic
Reduced voice delay and jitter
Improves data goodput
Rule of thumb for switched LAN: Wmax = 2HP
W=4 [packets] is good choice for single switch LAN
Window size can be spoofed by T2 without awareness of client
or server
Control from network edge has inherent limitations
For medium sized LANs, optimization of topology may help

Nikolaus Frber Legacy LAN VoIP