ACK-clock Dynamics in Network Congestion Control - An Inner Feedback Loop with Implications on Inelastic Flow Impact

The focus of this paper is the window mechanism in network congestion control, whereby packet acknowledgments control when new packets are being sent. This constitutes an inner control loop that so far has received little attention. We provide a novel model of this loop that bridges between the standard integrator link model and the more recent static link model. The model is in validation experiments shown to be accurate. It is also shown that as the amount of inelastic cross-traffic increases the dynamics of this inner loop becomes slower. This may influence overall performance and stability in scenarios with heavy inelastic flows