Architectures, Features, and Implementation of High-Speed Transport Protocols

As computer communications advance further into the era of lightwave networks, more strain is placed on data communication components. One component receiving much recent attention is the transport layer, the fourth layer of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, of communication protocols. There has been significant debate whether current transport protocols (e.g., Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or International Standards Organization (ISO) TP4) can adequately handle the burden placed upon them by newly developing and futuristic high-speed networks. Alternatives such as the development of new transport protocols [1–4] or new protocol architectures have been proposed. Lightwave networks currently being introduced (e.g., Fiber Distributed Data Interface—FDDI) supply much higher bandwidth to users than current networks. Future networks are expected to be able to supply users with gigabit capacity [5], which is several orders of magnitude above what current networks offer. The ability of current transport protocols to support these data rates has been questioned. In addition, lightwave networks will supply much more reliable service, with bit error rates as low as 10^-9 compared to networks today with bit error rates of 10^–4. How transport protocols may take advantage of this improvement has also been examined.