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19.2 Implications for the Subverted Flow

19.2 Implications for the Subverted Flow​

While subverting end-to-end congestion control may give a flow short-term bandwidth advantages, it can also have negative consequences for the flow itself:

  • Increased packet loss: Flows that fail to respond to congestion may ultimately experience higher packet loss rates as queues overflow and congestion becomes more severe.
  • Retransmission timeouts: Increased packet loss can lead to retransmission timeouts, which can severely degrade TCP performance.
  • Long-term performance degradation: While the flow may gain more bandwidth in the short term, long-term performance may suffer due to persistent congestion and packet loss.

Thus, subverting end-to-end congestion control is not necessarily beneficial to the flow itself, especially in the long term.

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