Internet DRAFT - draft-barik-mptcp-lisa

draft-barik-mptcp-lisa







Multipath TCP                                                   R. Barik
Internet-Draft                                        University of Oslo
Intended status: Standards Track                               S. Ferlin
Expires: April 21, 2016                       Simula Research Laboratory
                                                                M. Welzl
                                                      University of Oslo
                                                        October 19, 2015


                A Linked Slow-Start Algorithm for MPTCP
                       draft-barik-mptcp-lisa-00

Abstract

   This document describes the LISA (Linked Slow-Start Algorithm) for
   Multipath TCP (MPTCP).  Currently during slow-start, subflows behave
   like independent TCP flows making MPTCP behave unfairly to cross-
   traffic and causing more congestion in the bottleneck, which yields
   more losses among the MPTCP subflows.  LISA couples the initial
   windows (IW) of MPTCP subflows during the initial slow-start phase to
   remove this adverse behavior.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on April 21, 2016.

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   publication of this document.  Please review these documents



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   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  MPTCP Slow-Start Problem Description  . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.1.  Example of current MPTCP slow-start problem . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Linked Slow-Start Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     3.1.  Description of LISA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     3.2.  Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  Implementation Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   6.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   7.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   8.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   9.  Change History  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   10. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     10.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     10.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7

1.  Introduction

   MPTCP is an ongoing standardization effort that aims to extend TCP by
   allowing multiple paths to be used simultaneously.  The current MPTCP
   implementation provides multiple congestion control algorithms, which
   aim to provide fairness to TCP flows at the shared bottlenecks.
   However, in RFC 6356 [RFC6356], the subflows' slow-start phase
   remains unchanged to RFC 5681 [RFC5681], and all the subflows at this
   stage behave like independent TCP flows.  Following the development
   of IW as per [RFC6928], each MPTCP subflow starts with IW = 10.  With
   an increasing number of subflows, the subflows' collective behavior
   during the initial slow-start phase can temporarily be very
   aggressive towards a concurrent regular TCP flow at the shared
   bottleneck.

   According to [UIT02], most of the TCP sessions in the Internet
   consist of short flows, e.g., HTTP requests, where TCP will likely
   never leave slow-start.  Therefore, the slow-start behavior becomes
   of critical importance for the overall performance.

   To mitigate the adverse effect during initial slow-start, we
   introduce LISA, the "Linked Slow-Start Algorithm".  LISA's design is



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   based on initial congestion window sharing of MPTCP subflows, hence,
   providing coupling in the window increase.

1.1.  Definitions

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

   Acronyms used in this document:

      IW --  Initial Window

      RTT -- Round Trip Time

      CWND --  Congestion Window

      Inflight --  MPTCP subflow's inflight data

      old_subflow.CWND --  Congestion Window of the subflow having
             largest sending rate

      new_subflow.CWND --  New incoming subflow's Congestion Window

      Ignore_ACKs --  a boolean variable indicating whether ACKs should
             be ignored

      ACKs_To_Ignore --  the number of ACKs for which old_subflow.CWND
             stops increasing during slow-start

      compound CWND --  sum of CWND of the subflows in slow-start

2.  MPTCP Slow-Start Problem Description

   Given that it takes 1 RTT for the sender to receive any feedback on a
   given TCP connection, sending an additional segment after every ACK
   is rather aggressive.  Therefore in slow-start, all subflows
   independently doubling their CWND as in regular TCP, results in MPTCP
   also doubling its compound CWND.

2.1.  Example of current MPTCP slow-start problem

   We illustrate the MPTCP slow-start behavior with an example: Consider
   an MPTCP connection consisting of 2 subflows.  The first subflow
   starts with IW = 10, and after 2 RTTs the CWND becomes 40 and a new
   subflow joins, again with IW = 10.  Then, the compound CWND becomes
   40+10 = 50.  With an increasing number of subflows, the compound CWND
   in MPTCP becomes larger than that of a concurrent TCP flow.



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   For example, MPTCP with eight subflows (as recommended in [DCMPTCP11]
   for datacenters) will have a compound CWND of 110 (40+7*10).  As a
   result, MPTCP would behave unfairly to a concurrent TCP flow sharing
   the bottleneck.  This aggressive behavior of MPTCP also affects the
   performance of MPTCP.  If multiple subflows share a bottleneck, each
   of them doubling their rate every RTT, will cause excessive losses at
   the bottleneck.  This makes MPTCP enter the congestion avoidance
   phase earlier and thereby increases the completion time of the
   transfer.

3.  Linked Slow-Start Algorithm

3.1.  Description of LISA

   The idea behind LISA is that each new subflow takes a 'packet credit'
   from an existing subflow in slow-start for its own IW.  We design the
   mechanism such that a new subflow has 10 segments as the upper limit
   [RFC6928] and 3 segments as the lower limit [RFC3390].  This is based
   on [RFC6928], [RFC3390] and the main reason behind it is to let these
   subflows compete reasonably with other flows.  We also divide the
   CWND fairly in order to give all subflows an equal chance when
   competing with each other.

   LISA first finds the subflow with the largest sending rate measured
   over the last RTT.  Depending on the subflow's CWND, between 3 and 10
   segments are taken from it as packet credit and used for the new
   subflow's IW.  The packet credit is realized by reducing the CWND
   from the old subflow and halting its increase for ACKs_To_Ignore
   number of ACKs.

   We clarify LISA with the example given in Section 2.1.  After 2 RTTs,
   the old_subflow.CWND = 40 and a new_subflow joins the connection.
   Since old_subflow.CWND >= 20 (refer to Section 3.2), 10 packets can
   be taken by the new_subflow.CWND, resulting in old_subflow.CWND = 30
   and new_subflow.CWND = 10.  Hence, MPTCP's compound CWND, whose
   current size is 40, should ideally become 60+20 = 80 after 1 RTT.
   (Linux sends ACKs for every segment in slow-start.)  However, if 40
   segments from old_subflow.CWND are already in flight, the compound
   CWND becomes in fact 70+20 = 90.  Here, LISA keeps old_subflow.CWND
   from increasing for the next 10 ACKs.  In comparison, MPTCP without
   LISA would have 80+20=100 after 1 RTT.

3.2.  Algorithm

   Below, we describe the LISA algorithm.  LISA is invoked before a new
   subflow sends its IW.





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   1.  Before computing the new_subflow.CWND, Ignore_ACKs = False and
       ACKs_To_Ignore = 0.

   2.  Then, ignoring the new_subflow, the subflow in slow-start with
       the largest sending rate (old_subflow.CWND, measured over the
       last RTT) is selected.

   3.  If there is no such subflow, the IW of the new_subflow.CWND = 10
       Otherwise, the following steps are executed:

          if old_subflow.CWND >= 20

             old_subflow.CWND -= 10

             new_subflow.CWND = 10

             Ignore_ACKs = True

          else if old_subflow.CWND >= 6

             new_subflow.CWND -= old_subflow.CWND / 2

             old_subflow.CWND -= new_subflow.CWND

             Ignore_ACKs = True

          else

             new_subflow.CWND = 3

   4.  if Ignore_ACKs and Inflight > old_subflow.CWND

          // do not increase CWND when ACKs arrive

          ACKs_To_Ignore = Inflight - old_subflow.CWND

4.  Implementation Considerations

   LISA is implemented as a patch to the Linux kernel 3.14.33+ and
   within MPTCP's v0.89.5.

5.  Conclusions

   We identify the adverse effect of MPTCP's uncoupled slow-start on the
   performance of MPTCP itself and on concurrent TCP traffic.  We
   propose LISA, a linked slow-start algorithm for MPTCP that couples
   MPTCP subflows during slow-start phase.  LISA was implemented as a
   patch to the Linux kernel and evaluated in both emulated and real



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   testbeds [lisa].  In this evaluation, we observed that TCP (CUBIC)
   completes its transmission earlier than MPTCP without LISA.  This is
   due to the large overshoot when an additional subflow joins, causing
   more retransmissions.  LISA solves this problem.

6.  Acknowledgements

   This work was part-funded by the European Community under its Seventh
   Framework Programme through the Reducing Internet Transport Latency
   (RITE) project (ICT-317700).  The authors also would like to thank
   David Hayes (UiO) for his comments.  The views expressed are solely
   those of the authors.

7.  IANA Considerations

   This memo includes no request to IANA.

8.  Security Considerations

9.  Change History

   Changes made to this document:

     00->00 :      First version

10.  References

10.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC3390]  Allman, M., Floyd, S., and C. Partridge, "Increasing TCP's
              Initial Window", RFC 3390, October 2002.

   [RFC5681]  Allman, M., Paxson, V., and E. Blanton, "TCP Congestion
              Control", RFC 5681, DOI 10.17487/RFC5681, September 2009,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5681>.

   [RFC6356]  Raiciu, C., Handley, M., and D. Wischik, "Coupled
              Congestion Control for Multipath Transport Protocols", RFC
              6356, DOI 10.17487/RFC6356, October 2011,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6356>.

   [RFC6928]  Chu, J., Dukkipati, N., Cheng, Y., and M. Mathis,
              "Increasing TCP's Initial Window", RFC 6928, April 2013.





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10.2.  Informative References

   [DCMPTCP11]
              Raiciu, C., Barre, S., Pluntke, C., Greenhalgh, A.,
              Wischik, D., and M. Handley, "Improving datacenter
              performance and robustness with multipath TCP", ACM
              SIGCOMM p266-277, August 2011.

   [UIT02]    Brownlee, N. and K. Claffy, "Understanding internet
              traffic streams: Dragonflies and tortoises", IEEE
              Communications Magazine p110-117, 2002.

   [lisa]     Barik, R., Welzl, M., Ferlin, S., and O. Alay, "LISA: A
              Linked Slow-Start Algorithm for MPTCP", the paper will be
              available as soon as possible , 2015.

Authors' Addresses

   Runa Barik
   University of Oslo
   PO Box 1080 Blindern
   Oslo  N-0316
   Norway

   Email: runabk@ifi.uio.no


   Simone Ferlin
   Simula Research Laboratory
   P.O.Box 134
   Lysaker  1325
   Norway

   Email: ferlin@simula.no


   Michael Welzl
   University of Oslo
   PO Box 1080 Blindern
   Oslo  N-0316
   Norway

   Phone: +47 2285 2420
   Email: michawe@ifi.uio.no







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