Window-games between TCP flows.

Abstract

We consider network congestion problems between TCP flows and define a new game, the Window-game, which models the problems of network congestion caused by the competing flows. Analytical and experimental results show the relevance of the Window-game to real TCP congestion games and provide interesting insight into the respective Nash equilibria. Furthermore, we propose a new algorithmic queue mechanism, called Prince, which at congestion makes a scapegoat of the most greedy flow. We provide evidence which shows that Prince achieves efficient Nash equilibria while requiring only limited computational resources.