Congestion Control and Traffic Management in High Speed Networks

Congestion Control
and Traffic Management

in High Speed Networks
Carey Williamson
University of Calgary
Introduction
The goal of congestion control is to

regulate traffic flow in the network
in order to avoid saturating or
overloading intermediate nodes in
the network
Congestion: Effects
Congestion is undesirable because it
can cause:
Increased delay, due to queueing
within the network
Packet loss, due to buffer overflow
Reduced throughput, due to packet
loss and retransmission
Analogy: rush hour traffic
Congestion: Causes
The basic cause of congestion is that
the input traffic demands exceed the
capacity of the network
In typical packet switching networks,
this can occur quite easily when:
- output links are slower than inputs
- multiple traffic sources competing
for same output link at the same time
Buffering: A Solution?
Buffering in switches can help alleviate
short term or transient congestion
problems, but...
Under sustained overload, buffers will
still fill up, and packets will be lost
only defers the congestion problem
More buffers means more queuing delay

beyond a certain point, more buffering
makes the congestion problem worse,
because of increased delay and
retransmission
5
Motivation
The congestion control problem is even
more acute in high speed networks
Faster link speeds mean that congestion
can happen faster than before
e.g., 64 kilobyte buffer
@ 64 kbps: 8.2 seconds
@ 10 Mbps: 52 milliseconds
@ 1 Gbps: 0.52 milliseconds
Motivation (Contd)
Buffer requirements increase with

link speeds
e.g., to store 1 second worth of
traffic
@ 64 kbps: 8 kilobytes
@ 10 Mbps: 1.25 Mbytes
@ 1 Gbps: 125 Mbytes
7
Motivation (Contd)
Heterogeneity of link speeds

- just because you add new high
speed links to a network doesnt mean
that the old low speed links go away
- interconnecting high speed and lower
speed networks creates congestion
problems at the point of interconnect
Motivation (Contd)
Traffic is bursty
- high peak-to-mean ratio, peak rates
- e.g., data traffic: 10-to-1, 1-10 Mbps
- e.g., video traffic: 20-to-1, 5-100 Mbps
- can statistically multiplex several
channels, but if too many are active at
the same time, congestion is inevitable
Motivation (Contd)
Reaction time is bounded by the

propagation delay
- in a high-speed wide-area network, the
delay x bandwidth product is HUGE!!!
- d x b tells you how many bits fit in the
pipe between you and the receiver
- by the time you realize that network is
congested, you may have already sent
another Mbit or more of data!!!
10
Reactive versus
There
Preventive
are two fundamental approaches
to congestion control: reactive

approaches and preventive approaches
Reactive: feedback-based
attempt to detect congestion, or the onset
of congestion, and take action to resolve
the problem before things get worse
Preventive: reservation-based
prevent congestion from ever happening in
the first place, by reserving resources
11
Reactive versus Preventive

Most of the Internet approaches are
(Contd)
reactive schemes
TCP Slow Start
Random-Early-Detection (RED) Gateways
Source Quench
The large d x b product means that

many of these approaches are not
applicable to high speed networks
Most ATM congestion control strategies
are preventive, reservation-based
12
Congestion Control in ATM
When people discuss congestion

control in the context of high
speed ATM networks, they usually
distinguish between call-level
controls and
cell-level
controls
13
Call-Level Control
An example of the call-level approach
to congestion control is call admission
control (to be discussed later this
semester)
Tries to prevent congestion by not
allowing new calls or connections into
the network unless the network has
sufficient capacity to support them
14
Call-Level Control (Contd)

At time of call setup (connection
establishment) you request the
resources that you need for the
duration of the call (e.g., bandwidth,
buffers)
If available, your call proceeds
If not, your call is blocked
E.g., telephone network, busy signal
15

Tradeoff: aggressive vs conservative
Want to accept enough calls to have
reasonably high network utilization,
but dont want to accept so many
calls that you have a high probability
of network congestion (which might
compromise the QOS requirements
that you are trying to meet)
16
Problems:
Can be unfair
- denial of service, long access delay
Hard to specify resource requirements
and QOS parameters precisely
- may not know, or may cheat
- congestion can still occur
17
Cell-Level Control
Also called input rate control
Control the input rate of traffic sources
to prevent, reduce, or control the level
of congestion
Many possible mechanisms:
Traffic shaping, traffic policing, UPC
Leaky bucket (token bucket)
Cell tagging (colouring), cell discarding
Cell scheduling disciplines
18
Congestion Control in ATM

There is actually a complete
spectrum of traffic control
functions, ranging from the very
short-term (e.g., traffic shaping,
cell discarding) to the very longterm (e.g., network provisioning)
See [Gilbert et al 1991]
19
ATM Traffic Control

Schemes
Time Scale
20
ATM Traffic Control

Schemes
Short
Term
usec
Time Scale
21
ATM Traffic Control

Schemes
Long
Term
Short
Term
Months, years
usec
Time Scale
22
ATM Traffic Control

Long
Schemes
Resource Provisioning
Term
Call
Duration
Propagation
Delay Time
Cell Time
Time
Admission Control
Routing, Load Balancing
Explicit Congestion Notification

Fast Reservation Protocol
Node to Node Flow Control
Usage Parameter Control
Priority Control
Traffic Shaping
ScaleCell Discarding
23
ATM Traffic Control

Schemes
Cell Time
Time

Priority Control
Traffic Shaping
24
ATM Traffic Control

Schemes
Propagation
Delay Time

Time Scale
25
ATM Traffic Control

Schemes
Call
Duration
Admission Control
Time Scale
26
ATM Traffic Control

Long
Schemes
Term
Time Scale
27
ATM Traffic Control

Long
Schemes
Term
Call
Duration
Propagation
Delay Time
Cell Time
Time
Admission Control

Priority Control
Traffic Shaping
28
ATM Traffic Control

Schemes
Preventive controls:
Resource provisioning
Connection admission control
Call routing and load balancing
Usage parameter control
Priority control
Traffic shaping
Fast reservation protocol
29
ATM Traffic Control

Schemes
Reactive controls:
Adaptive admission control
Call routing and load balancing
Adaptive usage parameter control
Explicit congestion notification
(forward or backward)
Node to node flow control
Selective cell discarding
30
Leaky Bucket
One of the cell-level control
mechanisms that has been proposed is
the leaky bucket (a.k.a. token bucket)
Has been proposed as a traffic policing
mechanism for Usage Parameter
Control (UPC), to check conformance of
a source to its traffic descriptor
Can also be used as a traffic shaper
31
Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Think of a bucket (pail) with a
small hole in the bottom
You fill the bucket with water
Water drips out the bottom at a
nice constant rate: drip, drip,
drip...
32
33
Bucket
34

Empty
Bucket
35
Bucket
Hole
36

Water
Bucket
Hole
37
38
Drip
39
40
41
42
Constant
rate stream of
drips, all nicely
spaced, periodic
43

Storage area
for drips
waiting to go
Constant
rate stream of
drips, all nicely
spaced, periodic
44

A leaky bucket flow control mechanism is
then a software realization of this very
simple idea
Packets (cells) waiting for transmission
arrive according to some (perhaps
unknown) arrival distribution
Tokens arrive periodically
(deterministically)
Cell must have a token to enter network
45

Incoming Tokens
at rate r tokens/sec
Incoming Cells
(generated by
traffic source
with rate X)
46
To
Network

Incoming Tokens
Incoming Cells
4 32
47
To
Network

Incoming Tokens
Incoming Cells
5
4 32
48
To
Network

Incoming Tokens
Incoming Cells
5
43 2
49
To
Network

Incoming Tokens
Incoming Cells
5
43
50
To
Network

Incoming Tokens
Incoming Cells
5
51
2 1
To
Network

Incoming Tokens
Incoming Cells
X
4
52
2 1
To
Network

Incoming Tokens
Incoming Cells
XX
5
53
To
3 2 1 Network

Incoming Tokens
Incoming Cells
XX
54
To
3 2 1 Network

Cells must obtain tokens in order to
proceed into the network
If no token available, then cell is
discarded
Constrains the rate at which cells
enter the network to be the rate
negotiated at the time of call setup
Shapes traffic, reduces burstiness
55
Buffered Leaky Bucket

Arriving cells that find a token waiting
can proceed directly into the network
Arriving cells that find no token ready
must wait in queue for a token
Cells that arrive to a full queue are lost
Tokens that arrive to a full token pool
are simply discarded
56

Incoming Tokens
Pool of at most M
waiting tokens
Incoming Cells
Queue of
at most B
waiting cells
57
To
Network

(Contd)
Incoming cell rate: X
Token rate: r
If X > r, then cells wait in buffer until
tokens are available
Output traffic is r cells/sec, nicely
paced
If X < r, then tokens always ready
Output traffic is X (< r)
Use for traffic shaping or UPC
58

(Contd)
A station can save up at most M
tokens
Limits the maximum burst size in
the network
Can send at most M cells back to
back
B can be set to balance the tradeoff
between cell loss and cell delay
59
Leaky Bucket UPC

The token rate r is set based on the
rate declared at the time of call setup
Makes sure that each source obeys
rate that was used when the call
admission decision was made (i.e.,
descriptor)
Can use single leaky bucket to police
just the peak cell rate (PCR)
Can use dual leaky bucket to police
both PCR and SCR
60
Variations
There are several different variations
of the basic leaky bucket concept
described in the literature, such as the
virtual leaky bucket, spacer, others
Basic idea: rather than strictly
enforcing rates, allow senders to
occasionally exceed their prescribed
rate, as long as they mark or tag their
extra cells
61
Cell Marking Scheme

Uses leaky bucket to regulate cell
transmissions as before, but rather
than having cells wait for tokens when
there are no tokens ready, the station
can transmit the cell and mark it as a
violation cell (i.e., cell colouring)
Green (CLP = 0) for cells that obey rate
Red (CLP = 1) for cells that dont
62
Cell Colouring (Contd)

If the network detects congestion at
any point, then it does not hesitate to
throw away red cells (CLP = 1), but
always gives preference to green cells
Green cells must get through
Red cells get through only if there is
spare capacity in the network
No harm in trying! principle
63
Selective Cell Discard

(SCD)
A cell-level control mechanism in ATM
switches called selective cell discard
can be implemented quite easily using
a CLP threshold on each queue/buffer
Below the threshold, can accept both
green and red cells
Beyond the threshold, can only accept
green cells
64

(Contd)
Buffer in an ATM switch
65

(Contd)
66

(Contd)
Some cells
waiting to go
67

(Contd) CLP
Threshold
68

(Contd) CLP
Threshold
69

(Contd) CLP
Threshold
70

(Contd) CLP
Threshold
71

(Contd) CLP
Threshold
72

(Contd) CLP
Threshold
73

(Contd) CLP
Threshold
74

(Contd) CLP
Threshold
75

(Contd) CLP
Threshold
76

(Contd) CLP
Threshold
77

(Contd) CLP
Threshold
78

(Contd) CLP
Threshold
79

(Contd) CLP
Threshold
80

(Contd) CLP
Threshold
81

(Contd) CLP
Threshold
82

(Contd) CLP
Threshold
83

(Contd) CLP
Threshold
84

(Contd) CLP
Threshold
85

(Contd) CLP
Threshold
86

(Contd) CLP
Threshold
87

(Contd) CLP
Threshold
88
Explicit Congestion
Notification
There are some proposals to use
reactive congestion control
approaches for end-to-end flow control
in ATM
One of the mechanisms proposed is
called Explicit Forward Congestion
Notification (EFCN) (or EFCI, for
Explicit Forward Congestion Indication)
89
EFCI: Basic Operation

Switches can detect the onset of
congestion (e.g., buffers filling up)
Switches set a control bit in cell headers
to indicate this congestion condition
Sources react by reducing the volume
of traffic that they are sending through
that switch
Suitable for VBR or ABR traffic
90

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
91
Switch

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
Buffer
92
Switch

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
Switch
Occupied
Unoccupied
93

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
EFCI Threshold
94
Switch

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
Data
Cell
EFCI Threshold
95
Switch

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
EFCI Threshold
96
Switch

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
EFCI Threshold
97
Switch

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
EFCI Threshold
98
Switch

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
EFCI Threshold
99
Switch

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
EFCI Threshold
100
Switch

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
EFCI Threshold
101
Switch

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
EFCI Threshold
102
Switch

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
Switch
!!!
EFCI Threshold
103

(Contd)
Ack
Cell
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
EFCI Threshold
104
Switch
Traffic
Sink

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
EFCI Threshold
105
Switch

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
EFCI Threshold
106
Switch

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
EFCI Threshold
107
Switch

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
!!!
EFCI Threshold
108
Switch

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
EFCI Threshold
109
Switch

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
EFCI Threshold
110
Switch

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
EFCI Threshold
111
Switch

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
EFCI Threshold
112
Switch

(Contd)
Traffic
Sink
Traffic
Source
Switch
Switch
EFCI Threshold
113
Switch
EFCI Issues
How to set EFCI threshold
What should sources do when EFCI
signal is seen
What should sources do when no
EFCI signal is seen
Forward versus backward notification
Effect of feedback delay
Delay x bandwidth product
114
Summary
Congestion control in high speed
ATM networks is a difficult problem
Lots of good ideas of how to do it,
but no real standard (yet?)
Will likely require a combination of
schemes at different time scales and
for different classes of traffic
Lots more remains to be done
115

Congestion Control and Traffic Management in High Speed Networks

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Congestion Control and Traffic Management in High Speed Networks

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Congestion Control

and Traffic Management

The goal of congestion control is to

only defers the congestion problem

More buffers means more queuing delay

Buffer requirements increase with

Heterogeneity of link speeds

Reaction time is bounded by the

to congestion control: reactive

Reactive versus Preventive

The large d x b product means that

Congestion Control in ATM

When people discuss congestion

Call-Level Control (Contd)

Call-Level Control (Contd)

Call-Level Control (Contd)

Congestion Control in ATM

ATM Traffic Control

ATM Traffic Control

ATM Traffic Control

ATM Traffic Control

Explicit Congestion Notification

ATM Traffic Control

Usage Parameter Control

ATM Traffic Control

Explicit Congestion Notification

ATM Traffic Control

ATM Traffic Control

ATM Traffic Control

Explicit Congestion Notification

ATM Traffic Control

ATM Traffic Control

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Leaky Bucket (Contd)

Buffered Leaky Bucket

Buffered Leaky Bucket

Buffered Leaky Bucket

Buffered Leaky Bucket

Leaky Bucket UPC

Cell Marking Scheme