Abstract
The implementation of the retransmission timeout estimator for TCP re-initializes the timer with the retransmit timeout (RTO) after receiving an acknowledgement (ACK), if any more segments are in flight. This allows an additional time, up to a round-trip time (RTT), for the ACK of the next segment to be received, and makes the estimator conservative with respect to timeouts. The implementation which does not allow this additional time is referred to as Accurate. This thesis presents a simulation-based study of the retransmission timeout estimator in TCP Reno, the Accurate timeout estimator and the Eifel retransmission timer [11]. This thesis also presents a mechanism for adapting the RTO, in case of timeouts and spurious retransmits. This thesis shows that accurate timeouts are beneficial for connections traversing links with transmission errors. This thesis also identifies some of the problems with TCP Eifel.
Shankarkumar, Vinaychandra (2000). Simulation-based comparison of TCP retransmission timeout estimators. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -2000 -THESIS -S524.