CODEWITHSUNDEEP
tcplatency
WilliamKF
WilliamKF

Reputation: 43189

Does a large TCP window size cause issues on high error rate networks?

When sending TCP packets over a high latency network, one can set the TCP window size on some operating systems to allow the network utilization to be higher.

Will this cause issues on networks that also have high error rates?

When an error is found during transmission, does the whole window need to be retransmitted? If your window is large enough, is it true that a network with a high error rate might not make progress due to high probability of an error in each chunk of window size?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2086

Answers (1)

JimR
JimR

Reputation: 16153

This answer is pretty anecdotal as I don't have access to the code or data anymore. Just an old guy's memories of pain.

Beware of cascading effects if you do this.

In the mid '90s I worked on software that ran over satellite links that were also error prone. Certain events raised our error rate to 30% or more. With big windows, we sometimes couldn't get one packet transmitted before the errors started hammering us. This was before there was true window scaling.

Take a look at RFC 1323 and judge your window sizes based on your bandwidth, your latency and the algorithms therein.

It's also likely you will find this blog post useful.

Upvotes: 2

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