Characterization of the IntelRate Controller for High-Speed Networks

Unlike other explicit congestion controllers that depend on the estimation of network parameters (such as link latency, bottleneck bandwidth, packet loss, or the number of flows) to compute the allowed source sending rate, the IntelRate controller can avoid this while maintaining good stability and robustness. Simulation results have verified these performances. In this paper, we theoretically investigate the rationale that gives the IntelRate controller such an advantage. Our study shows that the IntelRate controller can be approximated by a PI (Proportional-Integral) controller but with time-varying gains, which allows the controller to outperform its counterparts. Finally, by comparing with the API-RCP (Adaptive PI Rate Control Protocol) using Opnet simulation, we experimentally illustrate our conclusion.