14 Algorithms For TCP Congestion Control

Note: Although this is a continuation of the TCP Performance Tuning article series, it’s also valuable as a standalone reference.

This is a list of 14 congestion control algorithms available in TCP. I’m presenting it in alphabetical order.

1. BIC TCP – Binary Increase Congestion Control, this is the default congestion control algorithm in Linux as of kernel version 2.6.7
2. Compound TCP (CTCP) – TCP Reno with a scalable delay-based component, developed by Microsoft and used in Windows Vista
3. FAST TCP – uses queueing delay (rather than packet loss) as an indicator of congestion
4. Hamilton TCP (H-TCP) – uses AIMD to control the congestion window
5. HighSpeed TCP (HSTCP) – a recent (2003) implementation
6. Scalable TCP – adaptation of the algorithms in TCP Reno
7. TCP Hybla – aimed at overcoming the extremely long RTTs of satellite networks
8. TCP Low Priority (TCP-LP) – designed to only use ‘extra’ bandwidth
9. TCP NewReno – TCP Reno with a modified Fast Retransmit and Fast Recovery
10. TCP Reno – adds Fast Recovery to TCP Tahoe’s Fast Retransmit
11. TCP Tahoe – uses Fast Retransmit to reduce wait time when a packet is lost
12. TCP Vegas – similar to FAST TCP, uses delay rather than loss to determine congestion
13. TCP Veno – slight modification to TCP Reno, optimized for heterogeneous networks, especially those involving wireless links
14. TCP Westwood+ – based on end-to-end bandwidth estimates, especially effective in wireless networks