Re: [aqm] I-D Action: draft-ietf-aqm-eval-guidelines-01.txt

[David Lang <[e-mail]>]

re: gaming ECN

apologies for not replying to the right message, I deleted them earlier before 
deciding to respond.

Programmers are going to game ECN to their advantage (or at least to their 
perceived advantage)

There are three ways to mark flows as congested

1. at the same level that you drop packets and then drop the packets at this 
level (why bother)

2. at the level that you drop packets for non-ECN flows, you mark and allow ECN 
flows to continue

3. at a level below the point that you drop packets for all flows, you mark ECN 
flows as congested


If you do #2, then flows with ECN effectively get priority over flows without 
ECN (as you don't actually force them to back off, you are just asking them to)

   Programmers will mark everything with ECN and not back off

If you do #3, then flows with proper ECN yield to flows without ECN, giving 
effective priority to flow without ECN

   Programmers will not use ENC as it puts their traffic at a disadvantage


If everyone uses ENC and backs off properly, then #3 is better as you don't have 
the delays caused by re-sending packet. But in a mixed environment, ECN is going 
to be gamed one way or the other.

David Lang