The control of congestion in connectionless packet-switched wide-area networks is a major problem, especially in such networks as the Internet, which is experiencing an exponential growth in users and network traffic. This thesis outlines a rate-based framework for congestion control in these networks, examines the requirements of the framework, and describes a number of control mechanisms which meet the framework's requirements.
The effectiveness of the framework in combatting congestion is demonstrated by a series of simulation experiments, which also compare the framework against traditional end-to-end congestion control mechanisms. Experimental results indicate that rate-based congestion control provides excellent congestion control. Moreover, a rate-based framework achieves much better congestion control in these networks than traditional control mechanisms.