Adaptive Transport Layer Protocols using In-band Network Telemetry and eBPF

Abstract

Many applications use Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) to achieve end-to-end reliable, ordered, and error-free data transfer in the network. The decisions are entirely based on the partial end-to-end information obtained from the acknowledgment packets. With several applications moving towards the wireless domain or wired-wireless domain, there has been advancements in the field of application-network interaction and innovations to obtain real-time network monitoring information on a per-hop basis. This paves a way for extensibility and customization of transport protocols. In this paper, we use detailed real-time in-band network telemetry information to adjust the data transfer at the sender side by modifying the congestion control algorithms in real time. This new technique is tested for different network scenarios and the obtained results indicate that a more network-aware TCP design can greatly increase performance under lossy conditions. The implemented technique illustrates how tighter interactions between higher-layer protocols and the network, in combination with real-time telemetry, can facilitate the way for novel, more adaptive protocol designs.