Random early marking for Internet congestion control

We present an optimization approach to rate based flow control. The initial context of this approach was as a rate based flow control in ATM networks. We describe techniques that enable us to implement this flow control in an explicit congestion notification capable TCP/IP network. These techniques require only minimal changes to existing TCP host behaviour, and RED active queue management routers. We call the collection of techniques random early marking (REM). We present the results of a simulation study that looks at the dynamic behaviour of REM and compares it to that of TCP-ECN with RED and DropTail queue management.