Some Open Issues and New Progress in the Research of Router Buffer Sizing

In the year of 2004, the small buffer rule presented by the Stanford research group caused great repercussions in research of router buffer sizing. Although the Stanford model has significant limitations, it is still a great breakthrough compared to the rule of thumb which is widely used in router buffer sizing. After 2004, although there was no consensus in research of router buffer sizing, a lot of valuable research results still appeared. In this paper, we discuss and analyze the previous recommendations on router buffer sizing including the rule-of-thumb, the Stanford model, BSCL, Tiny Buffer Rule, dynamic router buffer sizing and raise some concerns at some new angles and indicate some open issues in the direction of future research. Then introduce some new progress in our research, including revisiting the anomalous loss performance in routers with very small buffers and the impact of router buffer unit.