ECN verbose mode: a statistical method for network path congestion estimation

TL;DR

This paper presents a statistical method using a counter-based approach to estimate the level of network congestion at each router, improving upon the binary ECN indicator.

Contribution

It introduces a novel counter-based technique for accurately estimating congestion levels, enhancing ECN's capability to reflect actual network conditions.

Findings

Method is validated by preliminary simulations.

Accurately estimates congestion levels at routers.

Demonstrates feasibility and potential applications.

Abstract

This article introduces a simple and effective methodology to determine the level of congestion in a network with an ECN-like marking scheme. The purpose of the ECN bit is to notify TCP sources of an imminent congestion in order to react before losses occur. However, ECN is a binary indicator which does not reflect the congestion level (i.e. the percentage of queued packets) of the bottleneck, thus preventing any adapted reaction. In this study, we use a counter in place of the traditional ECN marking scheme to assess the number of times a packet has crossed a congested router. Thanks to this simple counter, we drive a statistical analysis to accurately estimate the congestion level of each router on a network path. We detail in this paper an analytical method validated by some preliminary simulations which demonstrate the feasibility and the accuracy of the concept proposed. We conclude this paper with possible applications and expected future work.