An Overview of Packet Reordering in Transmission Control Protocol (TCP): Problems, Solutions, and Challenges

Ka-cheong Leung, Victor O.k. Li, Daiqin Yang
2007 IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems  
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is the most popular transport layer protocol for the Internet. Due to various reasons, such as multipath routing, route fluttering, and retransmissions, packets belonging to the same flow may arrive out of order at a destination. Such packet reordering violates the design principles of some traffic control mechanisms in TCP and, thus, poses performance problems. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive and in-depth survey on recent research on packet
more » ... ng in TCP. The causes and problems for packet reordering are discussed. Various representative algorithms are examined and compared by computer simulations. The ported program codes and simulation scripts are available for download. Some open questions are discussed to stimulate further research in this area.
doi:10.1109/tpds.2007.1011 fatcat:slcro763qnbozool5f4p2tgr5q