TCP congestion

[Philip Lavine <source_route () yahoo com>]

Can someone explain how a TCP conversation could degenerate into congestion avoidance on a long fat pipe if there is no 
packet/segment loss or out of order segments? 

Here is the situation:
WAN = 9 Mbps ATM connection between NY and LA (70 ms delay)
LAN = Gig Ethernet
Receiver: LA server = Win2k3
Sender: NY server = Linux 2.4
Data transmission typical = bursty but never more that 50% of CIR
Segment sizes =  64k to 1460k but mostly less than 100k

Typical Problem Scenario: Data transmission is humming along consistently at 2 Mbps, all of a sudden transmission rates 
drop to nothing then pickup again after 15-20 seconds. Prior to the drop off (based on packet capture) there is usually 
a DUP ACK/SACK coming from the receiver followed by the Retransmits and congestion avoidence. What is strange is there 
is nothing prior to the drop off that would be an impetus for congestion (no high BW utilization or packet loss).

Also is there any known TCP issues between linux 2.4 kernel and windows 2003 SP1? Mainly are there issues regarding the 
handling of SACK, DUP ACK's and Fast Retransmits. 

Of course we all know that this is not a application issue since developers make flawless socket code, but if it is 
network issue how is caused?

Philip




       
____________________________________________________________________________________
Take the Internet to Go: Yahoo!Go puts the Internet in your pocket: mail, news, photos & more. 
http://mobile.yahoo.com/go?refer=1GNXIC