Application of a PID feedback control algorithm for adaptive queue management to support TCP congestion control

Abstract

Recently, many active queue management (AQM) algorithms have been proposed to address the performance degradation of end-to-end congestion control under tail-drop (TD) queue management at Internet routers. However, these AQM algorithms show performance improvement only for limited network environments, and are insensitive to dynamically changing network situations. In this paper, we propose an adaptive queue management algorithm, called PID-controller, that uses proportionalintegral-derivative (PID) feedback control to remedy these weaknesses of existing AQM proposals. The PID-controller is able to detect and control congestion adaptively and proactively to dynamically changing network environments using incipient as well as current congestion indications. A simulation study over a wide range of IP traffic conditions shows that PID-controller outperforms other AQM algorithms such as Random Early Detection (RED) [3] and Proportional-Integral (PI) controller [9] in terms of queue length dynamics, packet loss rates, and link utilization.