NETWORK CONGESTION MANAGEMENT

Analysing the Effects of Network Congestion Management in a corporate environment

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTSII

OVERVIEW1

TRAFFIC TYPES IN A CORPORATE NETWORK2

Network File Sharing3

E-mail and Internet Browsing3

QUALITY OF SERVICE3

CONGESTION MANAGEMENT IN A NETWORK4

FIFO6

Priority Queuing6

Round Robin8

Weighted Round Robin9

Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ)9

Low Latency Queuing10

TCP/IP Model11

Layers of TCP/IP Model12

OSI Model12

Design Issues for the Layers13

TCP NETWORK CONTROL14

BUFFER MANAGEMENT14

ACTIVE QUEUE MANAGEMENT15

NETWORK ARCHITECTURES16

LANs17

WANs17

Purpose of Network Architecture18

The Network Topologies19

Components of Network Architecture19

Network Architecture Types20

SCALABILITY22

CONGESTION AVOIDANCE IN NETWORK23

TCP24

UDP24

Flow Control25

RED26

WRED26

APPLYING QOS27

Levels of QoS29

QOS MODELS30

IntSer30

Disadvantages of IntServ31

DifSer32

Advantages of DiffServ32

Disadvantages of DiffServ32

REFERENCES35

Overview

There are many definitions of computer networks but they all have something in common. Computer networks are the exchange or processing of data between two or more interconnected devices. (Irving 2003). Network connections can be wired or wireless. Computer network is now used in every company and many household. Companies small and large are vitally dependent on computerised information (Tanenbaum & Wetherall 2011). Each company have some sort of computer network to allow them to communicate and enable to distribute information throughout the company. According to (Tanenbaum & Wetherall 2011) state that if all the computers are linked down, the bank might not continue more than five to six minutes as they completely depend upon the computer networks for permitting their employees to access relevant documents and information. This increase the demand on networking as to provide powerful communication across the network as the world relies on computers (Douglas, 2008, p.54).

Network congestion is a common phenomenon affecting companies all around the world. Due to the technological demands of today's business world, companies have shifted their operations online and conduct most of their transactions using wireless routing and internet connectivity. This calls for the creation of wireless networks as well as wired networks in the workplace, where all the data of the organization is stored and shared. Hence, the factor of congestion steps in. when too much data is sent across a wired or wireless network simultaneously, it creates traffic on the network, leading to a state of congestion. Companies have spent a lot of money and resources trying to counter such congestion. This calls for Network Congestion Managers whose core responsibility is to ensure that the networks do not get congested and data flows freely. In this paper, we discuss the different network models with respect to congestion and data management.

Traffic types in a Corporate Network

In a corporate network, there are three main types of network traffic best effort, undesired and sensitive. The sensitive traffic is the type of traffic that has to be delivered on time. For the corporate network, the sensitive data type includes web browsing, video conferencing and VOIP. Schemes of traffic management are mainly modified in such as way that the QoS is guaranteed. This can be attained by the absence of determining this class of traffic or by prioritizing sensitive traffic over other types of traffic. The second type of network traffic is Best-Effort traffic, this is kind of traffic that is non-detrimental in nature. The internet service providers think that this type of ...