TCP trunking: Design, implementation and performance

A TCP trunk is an aggregate traffic stream whose data packets are transported at a rate dynamically determined by TCP's congestion control. Typically such a trunk is implemented on top of a layer-2 virtual circuit or an MPLS label switched path. A management TCP connection is used to regulate the rate at which the trunk transmits its data packets. Setting up a TCP trunk over a circuit or a path is easy, involving only the two end nodes of a trunk to implement the management TCP connection. A TCP trunk can guarantee minimum bandwidth while being able to grab additional bandwidth when it is available. When carried by a TCP trunk, UDP flows will be constrained in their bandwidth usage, although they themselves do not perform congestion control. Experiments on testbed networks have validated these properties. TCP trunking can be an effective tool for network operators in managing bandwidth sharing between aggregates.