Question
Host A is sending an enormous file to Host B over a TCP connection. Over this connection there is never any packet loss and the timers never expire. Denote the transmission rate of the link connecting Host A to the Internet by R bps. Suppose that the process in Host A is capable of sending data into its TCP socket at a rate S bps, where S = 10 · R. Further suppose that the TCP receive buffer is large enough to hold the entire file, and the send buffer can hold only one percent of the file. What would prevent the process in Host A from continuously passing data to its TCP socket at rate S bps? TCP flow control? TCP congestion control? Or something else? Elaborate.
Answer
In this problem, there is no danger in overflowing the receiver since the receiver’s receive buffer can hold the entire file. Also, because there is no loss and acknowledgements are returned before timers expire, TCP congestion control does not throttle the sender. However, the process in host A will not continuously pass data to the socket because the send buffer will quickly fill up. Once the send buffer becomes full, the process will pass data at an average rate or R << S.