A high‐throughput flow control scheme using a relay buffering function

Abstract

AbstractAt present, window‐type flow control is mostly used in data communications in wide‐area networks. With further progress in wide‐area and high‐speed communication networks, however, an environment has emerged in which super‐high‐speed service of gigabit‐per‐second order is provided with a long transfer distance. Thus, the window size is limited by the hardware size of the prepared receiver buffer, and the effective throughput is limited. This paper considers this problem and proposes a flow control scheme in which the effective throughput is not restricted by the transfer distance. In the proposed method, the WABT scheme, which is a non‐window‐type flow control, is combined with relay buffering in the network. By applying this method, the effective throughput is not affected by the increase in the transfer distance or the effect of transmission delay in transfer stop/restart by the starting or release of the flow control mechanism. A theoretical analysis is presented in order to derive the basic characteristics of the proposed scheme, and its effectiveness is demonstrated. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 1, 85(12): 112–120, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecja.1146