Moving to faster pipes? watch those protocols

Layer 3 protocols like TCP/IP and Netware IPX can have a devastating effect on the throughput delivered by broadband services. The problem has to do with the way these protocols handle windows, the rotating windows that determine how data packets are sent across the network. This paper discusses the primary factors that cause a transmission to window out are transmission delay, processing delay, and network congestion. Of the three, transmission delay is the only predictable factor. It also happens to be a major contributing factor to the total delay.