Network Slowdown, By Design
This article was originally published on LinkedIn, 21 Feb 2022.
How are you measuring your network's performance?
Real-world networks encounter all kinds of problems from issues like duplicate IP addresses, misconfigured routers, inadequate buffering, fast-path slow-path transitions, IP fragmentation, and more.
The TCP protocol, when initially designed, had problems when the path between the endpoints was undergoing congestion, which manifests itself in packet loss and delay. TCP was extended to implement algorithms to detect signs of congestion on the path and to take actions to avoid sending more traffic into that congestion.
