A network scheme for TCP elastic traffic with admission control using edge-to-edge per-aggregate measurements in class-based networks

We propose a network scheme with Admission Control (AC) for TCP flows, which can provide different minimum throughputs and isolation between flows. It is built with simple mechanisms without per-flow state, per flow signaling or per-flow processing in the core. The whole scheme uses a small set of packet classes, with a different discarding priority assigned to each one. The AC is implicit, edge-to-edge and based on per-aggregate throughput measurements. The out packets of the aggregation of accepted flows (i.e., the packets that correspond to the flows' extra throughput) act as a probing flow to test if the throughput in the network path is enough to satisfy the flow's request. Then signaling packets carry the per-aggregate throughput measurement from the egress to the ingress, where the AC decision is made. Through simulation we show that the scheme guarantees the requested minimum throughput to accepted flows and achieves a good utilization of resources.