RFC 3124 (rfc3124) - Page 2 of 22
The Congestion Manager
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RFC 3124 The Congestion Manager June 2001 MACROFLOW A group of CM-enabled streams that all use the same congestion management and scheduling algorithms, and share congestion state information. Currently, streams destined to different receivers belong to different macroflows. Streams destined to the same receiver MAY belong to different macroflows. When the Congestion Manager is in use, streams that experience identical congestion behavior and use the same congestion control algorithm SHOULD belong to the same macroflow. APPLICATION Any software module that uses the CM. This includes user-level applications such as Web servers or audio/video servers, as well as in-kernel protocols such as TCP [Postel81] that use the CM for congestion control. WELL-BEHAVED APPLICATION An application that only transmits when allowed by the CM and accurately accounts for all data that it has sent to the receiver by informing the CM using the CM API. PATH MAXIMUM TRANSMISSION UNIT (PMTU) The size of the largest packet that the sender can transmit without it being fragmented en route to the receiver. It includes the sizes of all headers and data except the IP header. CONGESTION WINDOW (cwnd) A CM state variable that modulates the amount of outstanding data between sender and receiver. OUTSTANDING WINDOW (ownd) The number of bytes that has been transmitted by the source, but not known to have been either received by the destination or lost in the network. INITIAL WINDOW (IW) The size of the sender's congestion window at the beginning of a macroflow. Balakrishnan, et. al. Standards Track



