Paper Review: < SS01 >
Analysis and Design of an AVQ Algorithm for Active Queue Management

Reviewer: Oleg Elkhunovich

Problem

The problem is designing a virtual queue based marking scheme for AQM in Internet routers, that will have properties of stability in the presence of feedback delays, ability to maintain small queue lengths and its robustness in the presence of extremely short flows.

Contribution

Authors present an Adaptive Virtual Queue scheme that exhibits better performance than other AQM schemes according to their analysis and experiments.

Main Ideas

  • AQM achieves low loss with high utilization
  • AVQ scheme responds quickly to dropped and new flows
  • AVQ scheme has lower drops than other schemes
  • AVQ scheme maintains the smallest queue length

    Critique

    Significance: 3
    This paper purposes a new scheme for Acrive Queue Management in routers. This result is not breakthrough as it builds on existing theories and technologies. However, authors present a new scheme that seems to perform better than its competition.
    Methodology:
    Paper is very well organized. Authors present mathematical analysis as well as in-depth testing.
    Limitation:
    Some tests do not seem to be 100% honest. Authors pick TCP-Reno and TCP-NewReno flows without explaining their decisions. Tests sometimes seem to be designed to perform well. Realistic conditions have not been tested.

    Lessons:
    Simple ideas can lead to good results. Improvement can be achieved in the area that has already been extensively researched.