Internet congestion control: From stochastic to dynamical models

Since its inception, control of data congestion on the Internet has been based on stochastic models. One of the first such models was Random Early Detection. Later, this model was reformulated as a dynamical system, with the average queue sizes at a router's buffer being the states. Recently, the dynamical model has been generalized to improve global stability. In this paper we review the original stochastic model and both nonlinear models of Random Early Detection with a two-fold objective: (i) illustrate how a random model can be smoothed out to a deterministic one through data aggregation and (ii) how this translation can shed light into complex processes such as the Internet data traffic. Furthermore, this paper contains new materials concerning the occurrence of chaos, bifurcation diagrams, Lyapunov exponents and global stability robustness with respect to control parameters. The results reviewed and reported here are expected to help design an active queue management algorithm in real conditions, that is, when system parameters such as the number of users and the round-trip time of the data packets change over time. The topic also illustrates the much-needed synergy of a theoretical approach, practical intuition and numerical simulations in engineering.

Automated summary

The paper reviews stochastic models of data congestion control on the Internet, discusses the transformation from random to deterministic models, and sheds light on complex processes such as Internet data traffic. The results are expected to aid in designing active queue management algorithms under real conditions.