Resolving Tensions between Congestion Control Scaling Requirements

Abstract: Low Latency, Low Loss Scalable throughput (L4S) is being proposed as the new default Internet service. L4S can be considered as an `incrementally deployable clean-slate' for new Internet flow-rate control mechanisms. Because, for a brief period, researchers are free to develop host and network mechanisms in tandem, somewhat unconstrained by any pre-existing legacy. Scaling requirements represent the main constraints on a clean-slate design space. This document confines its scope to the steady state. It aims to resolve the tensions between a number of apparently conflicting scalability requirements for L4S congestion controllers. It has been produced to inform and provide structure to the debate as researchers work towards pre-standardization consensus on this issue. This work is important, because clean-slate opportunities like this arise only rarely and will only be available briefly---for roughly one year. The decisions we make now will tend to dirty the slate again, probably for many decades.