TCP and Linux’ Pluggable Congestion Control Algorithm

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Guest writes “Many months ago I had a few drinks with some fellow hackers. The discussion touched on the inevitable “my-Linux-is-better-than-your-*BSD-and-vice-versa” topic. I tried to argue in favour of Linux because it knows multiple TCP variants. They corrected me and said that there is only one TCP and that *BSD speaks it very well. Days after the side effects of the drinks were gone, I remembered the discussion and felt a sense of l’esprit d’escalier. Of course, there is a clear definition what the famous Tricky Communication Protocol (TCP) looks like, but there are many ways of dealing with situations in Wide Area Networks (WANs) where congestion, round-trip times, and packet loss play a major role. That’s what I wanted to say. Enter Linux’s pluggable congestion control algorithms.”

Link: linuxgazette.net

Category:

  • Linux