This article from Informit describes some of the key Transport Control Protocol (TCP) tunable parameters related to performance tuning.
TCP is a reliable transport layer protocol that offers a full duplex connection byte stream service. The bandwidth of TCP makes it appropriate for wide area IP networks where there is a higher chance of packet loss or reordering. What really complicates TCP are the flow control and congestion control mechanisms. These mechanisms often interfere with each other, so proper tuning is critical for high-performance networks. Here we describe in detail how to tune TCP, depending on the actual deployment.
TCP Tuning on the Sender Side
TCP tuning on the sender side controls how much data is injected into the network and the remote client end. There are several concurrent schemes that complicate tuning. So to better understand, we will separate the various components and then describe how these mechanisms work together. We will describe two phases: Startup and Steady State. Startup Phase TCP tuning is concerned with how fast we can ramp up sending packets into the network. Steady State Phase tuning is concerned about other facets of TCP communication such as tuning timers, maximum window sizes, and so on.
Startup Phase
In Startup Phase tuning, we describe how the TCP sender starts to initially send data on a particular connection. One of the issues with a new connection is that there is no information about the capabilities of the network pipe. So we start by blindly injecting packets at a faster and faster rate until we understand the capabilities and adjust accordingly. Manual TCP tuning is required to change macro behavior, such as when we have very slow pipes as in wireless or very fast pipes such as 10 Gbit/sec. Sending an initial maximum burst has proven disastrous. It is better to slowly increase the rate at which traffic is injected based on how well the traffic is absorbed.
During this phase, the congestion window is much smaller than the receive window. This means the sender controls the traffic injected into the receiver by computing the congestion window and capping the injected traffic amount by the size of the congestion window. Any minor bursts can be absorbed by queues.
there are three important TCP tunable parameters:
- tcp_slow_start_initial: sets up the initial congestion window just after the socket connection is established.
- tcp_slow_start_after_idle: initializes the congestion window after a period of inactivity. Since there is some knowledge now about the capabilities of the network, we can take a shortcut to grow the congestion window and not start from zero, which takes an unnecessarily conservative approach.
- tcp_cwnd_max: places a cap on the running maximum congestion window. If the receive window grows, then tcp_cwnd_max grows to the receive window size.
In different types of networks, you can tune these values slightly to impact the rate at which you can ramp up. If you have a small network pipe, you want to reduce the packet flow, whereas if you have a large pipe, you can fill it up faster and inject packets more aggressively.
Steady State Phase
In Steady State Phase, after the connection has stabilized and completed the initial startup phase, the socket connection reaches a phase that is fairly steady and tuning is limited to reducing delays due to network and client congestion. An average condition must be used because there are always some fluctuations in the network and client data that can be absorbed. Tuning TCP in this phase, we look at the following network properties:
- Propagation Delay – This is primarily influenced by distance. This is the time it takes one packet to traverse the network. In WANs, tuning is required to keep the pipe as full as possible, increasing the allowable outstanding packets.
- Link Speed – This is the bandwidth of the network pipe. Tuning guidelines for link speeds from 56kbit/sec dial-up connections differ from 10Gbit/sec optical local area networks (LANs).
In short, tuning will be adjusted according to the type of network and associated key properties: propagation delay, link speed, and error rate. These properties actually self-adjust in some instances by measuring the return of acknowledgments. We will look at various emerging network technologies: optical WAN, LAN, wireless, and so on—and describe how to tune TCP accordingly.
Read more details of TCP operation and tuning at Informit.
