TCP Congestion Control: Slow Start
Explore how TCP slow start controls network congestion by adjusting the congestion window swiftly and efficiently. Understand the differences between severe and mild congestion, and how TCP uses retransmission timers and fast retransmit to maintain reliable data transfer. This lesson equips you with essential knowledge of TCP congestion control mechanisms.
We'll cover the following...
We'll cover the following...
How Slow Start Works
The objective of TCP slow-start is to quickly reach an acceptable value for the congestion window.
During slow-start:
- The congestion window is doubled every round-trip time.
- The slow-start algorithm uses an additional variable in the TCB to maintain the slow-start threshold.
- The slow-start threshold is an estimation of the last value of the congestion window that did not cause congestion.
- It is initialized at the sending window and is updated after each congestion event.