Fair end-to-end window-based congestion control

In this paper, we demonstrate the existence of fair end-to-end window-based congestion control protocols for packet-switched networks with first come-first served routers. Our definition of fairness generalizes proportional fairness and includes arbitrarily close approximations of max-min fairness. The protocols use only information that is available to end hosts and are designed to converge reasonably fast. Our study is based on a multiclass fluid model of the network. The convergence of the protocols is proved using a Lyapunov function. The technical challenge is in the practical implementation of the protocols.