METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DYNAMICALLY ADJUSTING RETRANSMISSION TIMING IN A TRANSPORT LAYER

摘要

A system and method for dynamically (re)configuring a retransmission timeout (RTO) parameter for a transport protocol in a network element. In one embodiment, in an interval of data transmission, a determination is made for setting an RTO threshold for a next interval based on a plurality of transmission acknowledgement times returned from a receiver in the current interval. Thereafter, RTO thresholds for subsequent intervals are successively (re)adjusted based on a previous interval's measurements of transmission acknowledgement times until the data transmission is completed.

主权项

1. A method for reducing spurious retransmissions in a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) environment, the method comprising:
setting an initial retransmission timeout (RTO) for an initial measurement period of data transmission on a connection using TCP; obtaining a select number of round trip time (RTT) measurements during the initial measurement period of data transmission; determining a maximum of the select number of RTT measurements to be set as an RTO for an interval of data transmission; during the interval, determining a maximum of all RTT measurements obtained in the interval and resetting a next interval's RTO based on the maximum of the RTT measurements; and continuing to reset RTO values on an interval-by-interval basis responsive to RTT measurements taken in a prior interval until data transmission is complete, wherein the intervals have a configurable boundary and the initial measurement period of data transmission is shorter than a length of the intervals following the initial measurement period.