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Explore the interplay of incentives and protocols in congestion control. Study convergence and incentive compatibility. Analyze network dynamics, queuing policies, and models for congestion control in complex topologies.
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Incentive Compatibility and Dynamics of Congestion Control Michael Schapira Yale and UC Berkeley Joint work with P. Brighten Godfrey,Aviv Zohar and Scott Shenker
Agenda • Incentives and Protocolsfor Congestion Control • Our Model • Convergence Results • Incentive Compatibility Results • Conclusions and Open Questions
Congestion and TCP • Congestion collapse • Sometimes several orders of magnitude lower! • Observed in the mid-1980’s • The solution:TCP • Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease (AIMD) transmission rate time
Do End-Hosts Play Along? • Routers use FIFO queuing. • 2 TCP connections edge e S1 T1 Ce=1 S2 T2
Reality Check • Can this really happen? • Yes! • Why not? • Manipulation observed in other protocols (e.g., P2P). • Tweaking browsers to open more connections. • Download accelerators/patches: commercial and free software that promises to speed up downloads.
Incentives and Network Protocols • In a distributed environment, protocols are just a suggestion. • Participants will not follow the protocol if they can gain by deviating. • Economic mechanism design: Use Game Theory and Economics to analyze and design incentives. • Algorithmic mechanism design [Nisan-Ronen 99]
Incentives and Convergence • Incentive compatibility and convergence often go hand in hand • Both are standard requirements (e.g., the Border Gateway Protocol) • Easier to talk about an “outcome” when things converge • Similar phenomena. • We analyze convergence first, then incentives.
Our Simple Model • We present a simple model for congestion control. • Simplistic! • constant number of connections… • unchanging demands… • fluid model… • … but captures • interplay: end-host protocols and queuing policies • asynchronous interactions • convergence properties in complex topologies • incentives
The Model: Network Graph • The network is a directed graph G(V,E). • V = routers • E = links • Each edge e has capacity c(e). 3 3 2 1 4 2 1
The Model: Connections • Connection Ci is the source-target pair (si,ti) and a fixed route between them. • Each connection Ci has a maximum transmission rate ai and wishes to maximize its throughput. S1 T1 3 3 2 1 4 2 1 S2 T2
The Model: Queuing Policies • Connection Ci‘s flow on edge e is • If the flow entering an edge e exceeds its capacity, then traffic is dropped according the edge’s queuing policy 7 edge e ? 9 ? ? 2 Ce =9
The Model: Queuing Policies (Cont.) • FIFO: • Strict PriorityQueuing (SPQ): 7 7 3.5 7 9 9 4.5 2 0 1 2 2 Ce =9 Ce =9
The Model: Queuing Policies (Cont.) • Weighted Fair Queueing (WFQ): • Connection Ci has weight wi and gets capacity share • Unused capacity is redistributed similarly 7 w1 =1 3.5 9 w2 =1 3.5 2 2 w3 =1 Ce =9
The Model: Asynchronous Interaction • Infinite sequence of discrete time steps t=1,2,… • At each time step, an adversarial “scheduler” activates some subset of the connections and edges. • An activated connection uses acongestion control protocol to adjust transmission rate. • An activated edge adjusts the flow rates according to its queuing policy. • No connection or edge is starved indefinitely.
Illustration S1 T1 T3 6 2 0 2 0 3 6 4 6 3 6 6 6 T2 S2 6 S3 *all edge capacities = 6 *all routers use FIFO Queuing
Questions • When do the network dynamics converge to a stable flow pattern? • for what combinations of congestion control protocols and queuing policies? • When are connections incentivized to follow the protocol? • for what combinations of congestion control protocols and queuing policies?
Convergence: Surely if senders transmit at a fixed rate we’re fine! • Bad news: If weights/priorities are not consistent across routers, Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ) and Strict Priority Queuing (SPQ) might not converge even for fixed senders! 2 3 > > *capacities = transmission rates = 1 *uncoordinated priorities *infinitely many equilibrium points *oscillation! 1 4
Convergence: Surely if senders transmit at a fixed rate we’re fine! • Bad news: If weights/priorities are not consistent across routers, Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ) and Strict Priority Queuing (SPQ) might not converge even for fixed senders! *capacities = transmission rates = 100mbps
Convergence: Surely if senders transmit at a fixed rate we’re fine! • Bad news: If weights/priorities are not consistent across routers, Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ) and Strict Priority Queuing (SPQ) might not converge even for fixed senders! 2 > > *capacities = transmission rates = 1 *uncoordinated priorities *a single equilibrium points *oscillations almost from all initial states! 1 3 >
Good News • Thm:If all routers use WFQ or SPQ with consistent weights/priorities then, for fixed senders, convergence is guaranteed. • Thm:If all routers use FIFO, there is always an equilibrium flow pattern for fixed senders. • Shown using a fixed-point argument. • Open questions: (1) Is this equilibrium unique?(2) Is convergence guaranteed? • We give partial answers. Still wide open.
Probing Increase Educated Decrease (PIED) • A family of congestion control protocols • Increase transmission rate, until experiencing a small amount of packet loss. • If losing packets, lower transmission rate to match reported throughput rate. • Like TCP: Increase-Decrease • Unlike TCP: General increase. Specific decrease
Convergence Results Extend to PIED • Thm:When all connections use PIED, and all routers use WFQ or SPQ with coordinated weights/priorities, then the flow pattern converges. • The equilibrium point is efficient:(1) capacity is not wasted; (2) packets are not dropped needlessly. • If routers use WFQ, with all weights equal (Fair Queuing), then the equilibrium point optimizes max-min fairness. • Open Question: What about FIFO?
What About Incentives? • Thm: When all routers use WFQ or SPQ with coordinated weights/priorities, then PIED is incentive compatible. • That is, the end-host’s throughput at the stable state is as good as or better than anything it can get by not executing PIED. • In fact, even a coalition of end-hosts cannot gain by deviating from PIED!
Local Queuing Policies and Incentives • SPQ and WFQ are hard to implement in routers. • Per-flow processing! • Defn: An edge’s queuing policy is called “local” if it does not distinguish between two flows that have the same incoming and outgoing links. • Thm: If all routers use local and efficient queuing policies then PIED is not incentive compatible. • Generalization of our example for FIFO
Conclusion and Directions forFuture Research • New perspective on congestion control. • 3 desiderata: convergence, efficiency and incentives. • FIFO! • Improve the model! • coming and going connections… • changing demands… • traffic bursts…