TCP Slow start window size - tcp

I am revising for a networks exam and I am not sure of the answer to the following:
Consider the effect of using slow-start on a link with a 10ms round-trip time
and no congestion. The receive window is 24KB and the maximum segment
size is 2KB. How long does it take before the first full window can be sent
in one transmission round?
after every ACK, does the max segment size grow by 1 or does it double? If it doubles, would the answer be 50ms because 2KB^5 = 32KB so after 5 trips the MSS will equal 32KB and due to 10ms round-trip time it will be 10x5 = 50ms?

I found a solution to your question here (Problem 4):
http://web.eecs.utk.edu/~qi/teaching/ece453f06/hw/hw7_sol.htm
You are more or less correct, except you disregard the last RTT (since the window size goes beyond 24KB). So your answer is:
4 x 10 = 40ms.

Related

Selective Repeat Dilemma

I'm not understanding what is the dilemma in this figure. I only understood that if the window size is smaller than the sequence number then it's going to lead to some problems. This picture is addressing one of these problems:
When the receiver receives a pkt0 he doesn't know if this packet is:
A retransmission of the previous pkt0 (in a case where ACK0 has been lost).
or
if this is a new packet with seqnum 0.
Solution:
Maximum allowable window size = half the sequence number space.

Why in opencl As the message size increases the bandwidth increases?

Hi in a paper about data transfer in opencl i read As the data size that we want to send to the device memory increase the bandwidth will increase, but i dont know why . can some one please explain it to me why bandwidth will increase?
Every time a kernel gets launched or gets transferred to/from the GPU, there is a short delay of several micro-seconds. Historically, this has been larger on AMD GPUs than Nvidia GPUs. Therefore, there's two components to the time it takes to send data: latency + X * Y B/s where X is the number of bytes and Y is the theoretical bandwidth. When X is small, X * Y is not much larger than latency. As X gets large, e.g. multiple megabytes, the latency component of the total time becomes such a tiny fraction of the total time that it becomes insignificant.

Sliding window protocol, calculation of sequence number bits

I am preparing for my exams and was solving problems regarding Sliding Window Protocol and I came across these questions..
A 1000km long cable operates a 1MBPS. Propagation delay is 10 microsec/km. If frame size is 1kB, then how many bits are required for sequence number?
A) 3 B) 4 C) 5 D) 6
I got the ans as C option as follows,
propagation time is 10 microsec/km
so, for 1000 km it is 10*1000 microsec, ie 10 milisec
then RTT will be 20 milisec
in 10^3 milisec 8*10^6 bits
so, in 20 milisec X bits;
X = 20*(8*10^6)/10^3 = 160*10^3 bits
now, 1 frame is of size 1kB ie 8000 bits
so total number of frames will be 20. this will be a window size.
hence, to represent 20 frames uniquely we need 5 bits.
the ans was correct as per the answer key.. and then I came across this one..
Frames of 1000 bits are sent over a 10^6 bps duplex link between two hosts. The propagation time is
25ms. Frames are to be transmitted into this link to maximally pack them in transit (within the link).
What is the minimum number of bits (l) that will be required to represent the sequence numbers distinctly?
Assume that no time gap needs to be given between transmission of two frames.
(A) l=2 (B) l=3 (C) l=4 (D) l=5
as per the earlier one I solved this one like follows,
propagation time is 25 ms
then RTT will be 50 ms
in 10^3 ms 10^6 bits
so, in 50 ms X bits;
X = 50*(10^6)/10^3 = 50*10^3 bits
now, 1 frame is of size 1kb ie 1000 bits
so total number of frames will be 50. this will be a window size.
hence, to represent 50 frames uniquely we need 6 bits.
and 6 is not even in the option. Answer key is using same solution but taking propagation time not RTT for calculation. and their answer is 5 bits. I am totally confused, which one is correct?
I don't see what RTT has to do with it. The frames are only being sent in one direction.
Round-Trip-Time means that you have to take into account the ACK (acknowledgement message) you must receive that tells you the frames you are sending are being received by on the other side of the link. This 'time' window is the period where you get to send the remaining frames that the window allows you to send before you anticipate an ACK.
Ideally you want to be able to transmit continuously, i.e not having to stop at the window frame limit to wait for an ACK (which is essentially turns into a stop-and-wait situation if you have to stop and wait for the ack. The solution to this question is: the minimum number of frames that will be transmitted from the moment the first frame is transmitted to the moment you get an ack. (also known as the size for a large window)
Your calculations look to be correct in both cases and it would be safe to assume the answer choices for the second question are wrong .
Here its duplex channel so YOUR RTT= Tp hence they have considered Tp
Now you will get X = 25*10³
So total bits of window will be 5..

The realationship between window size and sequence number

The question is :
We have a transport protocoll that uses pipelining and use a 8-bit long sequence number (0 to 255)
What is the maximum window size sender can use ? (How many packets the sender can send out on the net before it muse wait for an ACK?)
Go-Back-N the maximum window size is: w= 2^m -1 w=255.
Selective Repeat the maximu window size is: w=(2^m)/2 w=128.
I do not know which is correct and which formula shall I use.
Thanks for help
Those two are different protocols having different issues.
In case of Go-Back-N, you are correct. The window size can be up to 255. (2^8-1 is the last seq # of packets to send starting from 0. And it's also the maximum window size possible for Go-Back-N protocol.)
However, Selective Repeat protocol has limitation of window size up to half of the max seq # since the receiver cannot distinguish a retransmitted packet having the same seq # with an already ack'ed packet but lost and never reached to sender in previous window. Hence, the window size must be in half range of seq # so that the consecutive windows cannot have duplicated seq # each other.
Go-Back-N doesn't have this issue since the sender pushes n packets up to window size (which is at max: n-1) and never slides the window until it gets cumulative acks up to n. And those two protocol have different max size windows.
Note: For Go-Back-N, the maximum window size is maximum number of unique sequence numbers - 1. If the window is equal to the maximum number of unique sequence numbers, if all the acknowledgements are lost, the receiver will accept all the retransmitted messages as a separate set of messages and relays the messages an additional time to it's application. To avoid this inconsistency, maximum window size = maximum number of unique sequence numbers - 1. This answer has been updated according to the fact provided in the comment by #noamgot.

Why is window size less than or equal to half the sequence number in SR protocol?

In selective repeat protocol, the window size must be less than or equal to half the size of the sequence number space for the SR protocol. Why is this so, and how?
This is to avoid packets being recognized incorrectly.
If the windows size is greater than half the sequence number space, then if an ACK is lost, the sender may send new packets that the receiver believes are retransmissions.
For example, if our sequence number range is 0-3 and the window size is 3, this situation can occur.
[initially] (B's window = [0,1,2])
A -> 0 -> B (B's window = [1,2,3])
A -> 1 -> B (B's window = [2,3,0])
A -> 2 -> B (B's window = [3,0,1])
[lost] ACK0
[lost] ACK1
A <- ACK2 <- B
A -> 3 -> B
A -> 0 -> B [retransmission]
A -> 1 -> B [retransmission]
After the lost packet, B now expects the next packets to have sequence numbers 3, 0, and 1.
But, the 0 and 1 that A is sending are actually retransmissions, so B receives them out of order.
By limiting the window size to 2 in this example, we avoid this problem because B will be expecting 2 and 3, and only 0 and 1 can be retransmissions.
The sequence space wraps to zero after max number is reached. Consider the corner case where all ACKs are lost - sender does not move its window, but receiver does (since it's unaware the sender is not getting the ACKs). If we don't limit the window size to half the sequence space, we end up with overlapping sender "sent but not acknowledged" and receiver "valid new" sequence spaces. This would result in retransmissions being interpreted as new packets.
Because the receiver will fail to distinguish between an old packet or a new packet. The receiver identifies packets based on sequence numbers, and there is a finite number of unique numbers for each connection. You can't have an infinite buffer.
Lets look at a obvious fail scenario:
The window size is greater than the sequence number space. Lets say we have sequence numbers 0, 1, 2. And our window size is 4. This means that the window has two occurrences of 0.
0,1,2,0 <- modulo wrap. When we get a package with a seq of 0. Is it the first packet or the fourth? No clue. Now, this problem will occur insofar as the window size is greater than half of the sequence number space. Why? Because there's always the possibility that the receiver is looking at a sequence number that MAY be contained in a packet coming from the sender that is NEW or OLD. Does it always happen? No. But when it does, here's what happens:
Case 1:
Receiver window after properly receiving packets 0,1,2.
0,1,2,[3,0,1],2
But what if the ACKs sent are lost? Well, the sender will resend 0,1,2. But are 0,1 OLD or NEW? The receiver can't tell.
Case 2:
Same window on receiving end. The three packets are received.
0,1,2,[3,0,1],2
Now, the receiver receives ALL the acks but ONE correctly. Lets pick the 2nd one (1). Now, it's going to resend 1. But the receiver is looking at 1! So is this the new one as it expects (nope), or the old one?
Therefore, to ensure that the window is never expecting sequence numbers that could possibly be used by potential outstanding packets (either coming from a normal transmission or re-transmission of a missing ack) we have to either decrease the window size or increase sequence numbers.
Look what happens when we increase the sequence number space to, say 6.
0,1,2,3,4,5.
No matter how we position the window, it's never at risk of receiving a packet with a old sequence number.
0,1,2,[3,4,5]0,1...
By the time the window wraps around, we are positive that we've received the previous ones in order.
This link has an animation that walks through each of the steps of the protocol to explain why the window size matters:
http://webmuseum.mi.fh-offenburg.de/index.php?view=exh&src=73
Basically, if the window size is too high, then corruption in transmission can cause incorrect assumptions and lead to data corruption in the final result.

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