Network Congestion and uTP
Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 2:12 pm
Okay, so I know there's been a bunch of debate over uTP (a chunk of which seems to have been here actually) but I'm very confused about what the current network congestion tools are like these days.
Specifically, it sounds like Mac OS X now supports SACK and LEDBAT over TCP, and actually a bunch of other network congestion strategies/protocols that I'd never heard of until I started looking into all this.
Anyway, needless to say I'm completely confused and have no idea what half of these features mean in practice, but I'm interested to know what underlying TCP congestion strategies Transmission supports (or does it simply support anything the OS does?) and what the current situation is for support across bittorrent clients. For example, given uTP's dubious superiority over TCP enabled alternatives, do I really gain anything by leaving uTP enabled or would I be better off preferring TCP-based methods since Mac OS X has good support for a range of these?
On a related note; my current network uses PowerLine/HomePlug AV based units connecting to the internet through a DIR-655 router (I gave up on Wireless recently, too many headaches), however both of these implement QoS. Does this affect TCP congestion strategies in any way? I've found that it does seem to help smooth out video chatting and such, but does it mean I don't really need to improve anything? I believe my setup mostly affects upload speed, but that's where I'm most limited (20Mbps downstream but only 1Mbps upstream).
I haven't had a chance to sit down and just try different things to try and observe the results, firstly because I have no good way of really measuring the results, and it's not an area I'm particularly knowledge in anyway.
Specifically, it sounds like Mac OS X now supports SACK and LEDBAT over TCP, and actually a bunch of other network congestion strategies/protocols that I'd never heard of until I started looking into all this.
Anyway, needless to say I'm completely confused and have no idea what half of these features mean in practice, but I'm interested to know what underlying TCP congestion strategies Transmission supports (or does it simply support anything the OS does?) and what the current situation is for support across bittorrent clients. For example, given uTP's dubious superiority over TCP enabled alternatives, do I really gain anything by leaving uTP enabled or would I be better off preferring TCP-based methods since Mac OS X has good support for a range of these?
On a related note; my current network uses PowerLine/HomePlug AV based units connecting to the internet through a DIR-655 router (I gave up on Wireless recently, too many headaches), however both of these implement QoS. Does this affect TCP congestion strategies in any way? I've found that it does seem to help smooth out video chatting and such, but does it mean I don't really need to improve anything? I believe my setup mostly affects upload speed, but that's where I'm most limited (20Mbps downstream but only 1Mbps upstream).
I haven't had a chance to sit down and just try different things to try and observe the results, firstly because I have no good way of really measuring the results, and it's not an area I'm particularly knowledge in anyway.